88 REPTILIA. 



Immediately after the Salamanders come several very simi- 

 lar animals, some of which are considered as having been al- 

 ways destitute of branchiae, that is, they probably lose them 

 at as early a period as our terrestrial Salamanders ; the others, 

 on the contrary, retain them for life, a circumstance, however, 

 which does not prevent their having lungs like the Batra- 

 chians, so that they may be considered as the only vertebrate 

 animals which are truly amphibious. (1) 



The former (those in which no branchiae are visible) con- 

 stitute two genera. 



Menopoma, Harlan. (2) 



Form of a Salamander; eyes apparent, the feet well developed, and 

 an orifice on each side of the neck. Besides the range of small 

 maxillary teeth, there is a parallel row of them on the front of the 

 palate. Such is the reptile termed 



Sal. gigantea. Barton; Great Salamander of North America; 

 Ann. of the New York Lye. I, pi. 17. (The Hellbender.) From 

 fifteen to eighteen inches long; a blackish blue; inhabits the 

 lakes and the rivers of the interior. 



Amphiuma, Garden. 



An orifice on each side of the neck, but the body excessively elon- 

 gated; the legs and feet, on the contrary, but very slightly developedf 

 the palatine teeth form two longitudinal ranges. 



In one species there are but three toes to each foot; Jimph. 



tridactylum, Cuv.; and in another, mph. means, Gard and 



Harl. but two Mem. du Mus. XIV, pi. 1.(3) 



(1) The simultaneous existence and action of the branchial tufts and of the 

 lungs in these animals, are as incontestable as any one of the most indubitable 

 facts presented to us in natural history; there are now before me the lungs of a 

 Siren three feet long, in which the vascular apparatus is as well developed and as 

 complex as in any reptile whatever, notwithstanding which, the branchia; of this 

 same animal were as complete as those of others. 



(2) Dr Harlan first called them Abkanchus; Leukard and Fitzinger call them 

 Cktptobranchus, and others Pbotonopsis. 



(3) The Amphiuma was known to Linnaeus, but at too late a period to allow 

 him to insert it in any of the editions of his system which appeared during his life. 

 It has been described since by Dr Mitchell, under the name of Chrysodonta larvae- 

 formis, and by Dr Harlan under that of Amphiuma. I have described the Amph. 

 tridactylum of Louisiana, which attains the length of three feet. See Mem. du 

 Mus. tome XIV, 1. I suspect this is the species spoken of by Barton in his letter 

 upon the Siren, as a Siren with four feet. 



