198 



FIG. 104. 



AFFINITIES AND GEOGRAPHICAL 



has given rise to the vulgar notion that these 

 animals can resist the action of fire. 



The remaining batrachia are isolated spe- 

 cies, generally limited in locality, and all of 

 them retain in their maturity some portion 

 of the fish character. The Amphiuma, an eel- 

 like animal, two or three feet long, which is 

 found in stagnant pools in the more southern 

 of the United States, has apertures in the 

 sides of the neck, the last vestige of the gill- 

 structure. Deep underground, in waters never 

 visited by daylight, resides the blind Proteus, 

 which continues to have entire gills branch- 

 ing from the neck throughout the whole of 

 life, and only depends in a less degree upon 

 lungs. With four short and feeble limbs, it 

 departs little from the form of the fish. The 

 Sirens, which inhabit marshes in Carolina, 

 have no hind limbs, and only rudiments of 

 the anterior pair. In the North American 

 lakes is the Menobranchus, with constant 

 gills, and four very small limbs : it sometimes 

 attains the length of three feet. Another of 

 these gilled batrachia is the Axolotl of the 

 Mexican lakes, the flesh of which is esteemed 

 a delicacy. 



Proteus Anyuineus. 



FIG. 105. 



Axolotl. 



