TAILED BATRACHIANS 265 



skin on each side, which undulates in the water during 

 locomotion ; the limbs are short and bordered with 

 membranes. The tail is very strongly compressed, finned, 

 and with the end rounded. The skin, which is brown, 

 spotted with black, is very tubercular, the tubercles 

 being largest and most prominent on the head. 



The animal is closely related to the Great Salamander of 

 the Miocene of Oenigen, originally described by its dis- 

 coverer as a fossil man, " Homo diluvii testis,'''^ regarded 

 by him as " ein recht seltenes Denkmal jenes verjiuchten 

 Menschcngeschlechts der crsten JVelt.^' 



According to Sasaki the Giant Salamander is eaten by 

 the Japanese, and may be easily captured with a fish-hook 

 baited with fish, frog, or worm, and tied to a string a few 

 feet in length. When captured it emits a peculiar slimy 

 secretion, which hardens into a gelatinous mass on short 

 exposure to air. 



The eggs, laid in August and September, form a rosary- 

 like string, each egg measuring six millimetres in circumfer- 

 ence, being connected with the next by a small string. 

 The Giant Salamanders in the Amsterdam Aquarium bred 

 a few years ago, when Dr. Kerbert, of that institution, was 

 able to witness the parturition and development. The 

 care of the eggs devolved on the male, the latter occasion- 

 ally getting under them and lifting them up for the purpose 

 of aeration. The larvae left the eggs when about an inch 

 in length, provided with external gills and rudiments of 

 limbs. 



In Cryptobranchus, of the Eastern United States, which 

 does not attain quite so large a size as Megalobatrachus, 

 the neck is pierced by a pair of small holes. 



