132 URODELA CHAP. 



preferriug ponds, Jimong the vegetation of which they can be 

 watched lying motionless, with their limbs lianging down and with 

 the head close to the surface ; but they are lively during the night. 

 When their ponds dry up they leave them, crawling into the 

 most unexpected places, to aestivate under rocks, or even in the 

 walls of old buildings, where they are found by accident only. 

 The range extends from Central Spain and Portugal into 

 ^Morocco. 



Tylototriton xerrmusus lives in the Eastern Himalayas and in 

 the mountains of Yunnan. The skin is tubercular, with large 

 parotoids; above uniform black-brown, pale below; the tail has 

 a ventral yellow or orange line. Total length about 6 inches. 

 T. andcrsoni of the Loo-Choo Islands is remarkalde for the 

 pointed ribs whicli perforate the skin. 



Pachytriton hreviiJcs, discovered in Kiansi, Southern China, 

 has a smooth skin, olive-brown above, with many black dots ; 

 the under parts are yellowish, dotted with Idack. Total length 

 about 7 inches. 



Fam. 3. Proteidae. — The three pairs of fringed external 

 gills persist throughout life. Both fore- and hind -limbs are 

 present. The eyes are devoid of lids. The maxillaries are 

 absent. Teeth are present on the<*'premaxillaries, on the vomers, 

 and on the mandible. The vertebrae are amphicoelous. 



This family consists of ohly Jhree genera, with one species 

 m each. ^ 



ffectt^vL Necturus maculatus s. Menohranchus lateralis. — The eyes are 



functional, being covered by the thin transparent skin. The 

 limbs, although short, are well developed, and have four fingers 

 and four toes. The wliole animal, which reaches the length of 

 one foot, is quite smooth and slimy, brown with irregular dark, 

 blackish spots and patches, whicli frequently form a dark lateral 

 band extending from the mouth to the tail. The latter, which 

 measures about one-third of the whole length, is strongly com- 

 pressed, carries a thick dorsal and ventral fin, and is rounded off 

 at the end. The skin of the throat forms a strongly-marked 

 transverse fold. The thick stalks of the gills are brown, while 

 the numerous and delicate fringes are dark red in life ; Ijeneath 

 and Ijehind them arc two gill-clefts. N. maculatus is found in 

 the eastern half of the United States, chiefiy the eastern part 

 of the basin of the ^Mississippi and the Canadian lakes. 



