57 



SALAMANDRA SYMMETRICA.— i?a?/aH. 



Plate XVII. 



Characters. Head, body and tail brownish-red; throat and abdomen orange- 

 colour; a row of deep red spots on each side of the vertebral line symmetrically 

 arranged; tail longer than the body, small and compressed; skin rough. 



Stnonymes. Salamandra stellio, Say, Amer. Jour, of Arts and Scien., vol. i. p. 264. 

 Salamandra symmetrica, Harlan, Med. and Phys. Res., p. 98. 



Description. The head is short, and the snout rather pointed; the mouth is 

 small; the tongue is small, with a short pedicle, and is only free and movable at 

 its sides; a transverse row of minute teeth begins on each side of the palate behind 

 the posterior nares; these run inwards and unite in the centre. The longitudinal 

 series is very small, yet it extends throughout the whole palate behind the trans- 

 verse row. 



The nostrils are latero-anterior. The eyes are small and beautiful, with the 

 pupil black and the iris flame-colour. The neck is about the size of the head, 

 with a small transverse cutaneous fold at the throat. 



The body is cylindrical, slightly compressed at the sides; and the whole animal 

 is covered with a rough cuticle. 



The anterior extremities are small and dehcate, terminating in four slender 

 fingers; the posterior have twice the bulk of the anterior, and terminate in five 



