42 REPTILES AND BATRACHIANS. 



orders, all go to form the class Batrachia. Frogs and toads vary 

 but little in their appearance, and notwithstanding there are some 

 hundreds of species in various parts of the world, all are easily 

 recognisable. Not so the newts or salamanders, among which 

 are bodies long and slender, short and stout, with two feet or 

 four, furnished variously with two, three, or four toes each. One 

 pair is sometimes so diminutive and close to the head that as feet 

 they can be of very little use, while another pair may be close to 

 the base of the tail. Some are so large as to attain four or five 

 feet in length, while others are measured by inches only. Some 

 retain their gills through life, others are furnished with lungs as 

 well as gills, or, as in our British species, the gills remain only during 

 the aquatic existence. Several interesting examples are generally 

 to be seen in the Reptilium of the Zoological Gardens. There is 

 the " Gigantic Salamander" of Japan, whose relationship to the 

 frog you will at once perceive in the form of its head and jaws. 

 There is also the American Amphiuma, a large, thick-bodied 

 amphibian, with a pair of almost invisible feet, no bigger than the 

 claws of a mouse, while the animal itself is above a yard in 

 length. And there are the pretty little Mexican Axolotls with 

 their large, feathery, permanent gills, which they wave to and 

 fro like fans. Besides which are newts and other members of 

 the group. 



The Amphibians are mostly aquatic during life. Even those 

 which in the adult state take to the land, prefer moist and marshy 

 localities where water is within reach, but always fresh water; 

 never in the sea are they seen. Indeed it is said that salt, even 

 in small quantities, acts so injuriously on their delicate skin as 

 to kill them. Their skin is soft and moist, and what is called 

 naked, being destitute of scales, shields, or such protection as is 

 found in crocodiles and tortoises. 



As was stated in Chapter I., the Batrachians, in common with 

 reptiles, birds, and fishes, are all produced from an egg ; but 

 while birds and reptiles possess so many structural resemblances 

 as to be grouped together under the title Sanropsida (lizard -like), 

 the Amphibians approach the fishes in so many respects as to 

 be grouped with them as Ichthyopsida (resembling fish). In 

 their first or embryo condition they are fish without fins ; in their 

 second life or adult state they are more like reptiles. The change 

 is, as we shall see, a most interesting and wonderful one. 



