+ 



+ 



42 THE COMMON FROG. [chap. 



It will be well now to review some of the more 

 striking forms contained in the order. 



The Land Eft {Salamandrd), though common in 

 Holland and France (as well as the rest of Europe), 

 is unknown in this country. 



Genera allied to the European genera Triton and 

 Salainandra, and to the American genus Aniblystonia, 

 may have the body and tail more and more elongated 

 and the legs reduced, as in Spclci^pes, Chioglossa, and 

 (Edipmay till they attain the condition of Batrachoseps. 

 The greatest excess of this development, however, is 

 found in the North American genus AmpJiiiuna, the 

 minute limbs of which have either three or two toes, 

 according to the species. These creatures are called 

 by the negroes " Congo Snake," and are quite errone- 

 ously regarded as venomous (fig. 17). 



The largest existing Urodele — the gigantic Sala- 

 mander i^Cryptobrancluis) — is found in Japan, where 

 it attains a length of 5 or 6 feet. A closely allied 

 species inhabits China, and during the tertiary period 

 one also inhabited Europe, the fossil skeleton of 

 which being strangely supposed to be that of an 

 antediluvian man received the curious appellation, 

 " Homo diluvii testis." 



In Cryptobi''ancJius (as in all the Urodela yet 

 enumerated except Ainphhmid), though the young 

 have gill-openings and external gills, the adults are 

 devoid of both. 



In a North American genus, however {Mawpoifid), 

 which, though smaller in size, closely resembles Crypto- 

 branchus in figure, there is a permanent gill-opening, 

 though the gills themselves disappear in the adult, 



