piPA. 259 



Family IV. Pipad^. 



In this Family, which consists of a single 

 genus confined to South America, the tongue 

 is entirely wanting. The body is flattened and 

 very broad ; the head also is large, flat, and 

 somewhat triangular ; the tympanum is concealed, 

 the toes are divided into star-like points. 



Genus Pip a. (Laur.) 



The large triangular head in this singularly 

 uncouth reptile, bears a distant resemblance to 

 that of a hog, having the muzzle prolonged 

 into a sort of tube in which the nostrils terr 

 minate ; the eyes are minute and situated on 

 the upper surface of the head, near the margin ; 

 the eyelids are merely rudimentary, incapable 

 of covering the eyes. There is no tongue, nor 

 any teeth either in the jaws or palate, nor any 

 external trace of the great parotid glands, so 

 conspicuous behind the eyes of our common 

 Toad. The gape of the mouth is very wide, 

 the upper jaw is furnished with a little barbule, 

 which depends on each side, and a cutaneous 

 appendage, somewhat like a little ear, is aflixed 

 to the angle of the mouth. The fore feet are 

 furnished with four toes each, which are long 

 and slender, and divided at their tips into four 

 distinct points, each of which, when examined 

 with a microscope, is found to be obscurely 

 divided almost in a similar manner. The hind 

 limbs are short and stout, the feet large with 

 five toes, united by broad membranes. The 



