REPTILIA — SALAMANDER. 715 



are extended, and evidently formed for rooting in the ground; the skin of 

 the neck forms a sort of wrinkled collar ; the color of the head is of a dark 

 chesnut, and the eyes are small ; the back, which is very broad, is of a light- 

 ish gray, and seems covered over with a number of small eyes, which are 

 round, and placed at nearly equal distances. These eyes are very different 

 from what they seem ; they are the animal's eggs covered with their shells, 

 and placed there for hatching. They are generated within the female, who 

 drops them on the ground. The male then collects them, and deposits them 

 carefully on the back of the female, where, after impregnation, they are 

 pressed into the cellules, which close upon them. These eggs are buried 

 deep in the skin, and in the beginning of gestation but just appear; and are 

 very visible when the young animal is about to burst from its confinement 

 They are of a reddish, shining yellow color; and the spaces between then, 

 are full of small warts, resembling pearls. 



In this manner the pipa is seen travelling with her wondrous family on 

 her back, in all the different stages of maturity. Some of the strange 

 progeny, not yet come to sufficient perfection, appear quite torpid, and as yet 

 without life in the egg; others seem just beginning to rise through the skin ; 

 here peeping forth from the shell, and there having entirely forsaken their 

 prison ; some are sporting at large upon their parent's back ; and others 

 descending to the ground, to try their own fortune below. 



THE SALAMANDERS 



The ancients have described a lizard that is bred from heat, that lives in 

 the flames, and feeds upon fire, as its proper nourishment. It will be need- 

 less to say that there is no such animal existing ; and that, above all others, 

 the modern salamander has the smallest affinity to such an animal. The 

 fact is, that, when the animal is exposed to fire, drops of milky fluid ooze 

 through all the pores of the skin. The same circumstance, however, occurs 

 whenever it is handled. This fluid appears to be of an acrid nature. 



The salamander 2 best known in Europe, is from eight to eleven inches 

 long ; usually black, spotted with yellow ; and, when taken in the hand, 

 feeling cold to a great degree. There are several kinds. The black water 

 newt is reckoned among the number. The idle report of its being incon- 

 sumable by fire, has caused many of these poor animals to be burnt ; but we 



1 The genus Salamandra has the body elongated ; tail long, cylindrical, or flattened ; head 

 depressed ; ears concealed, and with a small cartilaginous plate upon the opening ; jaws 

 furnished with numerous small teeth, and two longitudinal rows of similar teeth on the 

 palate ; tongue short, thick, and fixed in the lower jaw ; no third eyelid ; feet four, with 

 four toes before and five behind. 



s Saiamandra terrestris. Lin. 



