COMMON WARTY-NEWT. 137 
tations. In consonance with this latter change, the hold- 
ers, which had been the only previous means of station, 
being now unnecessary, have become almost entirely ab- 
sorbed. At figure 8, the further developement of the an- 
terior feet, which have acquired four toes, and the rudi- 
mentary existence of the posterior pair, have considerably 
approximated the little animal to its permanent condition ; 
but the branchie have acquired a still more extensive 
developement, and the leaflets of which they are composed 
are much more distinct. In figure 9, which is of the 
natural size, we see the animal much changed. The body 
is now bulky, the colours are nearly those of the perfect 
condition, and the transparency of the body, which has 
previously been such as to afford the most agreeable oppor- 
tunity to examine the internal structure, and to watch the 
functions which were going on, has given place to the 
opacity of the adult animal. The branchiz, however, still 
remain, and have assumed a firmer consistence, a more 
opaque appearance, and a deeper colour. From this 
period the branchiz become gradually absorbed, and the 
lungs are in the same proportion developed, until at length, 
towards the close of autumn, the young animal has acquired 
its perfect condition, and has quitted its aquatic for an 
atmospheric mode of respiration. In fact, like the Tad- 
pole of the Frog, the metamorphosis of which we have 
already traced, it has passed from the state of a fish to 
that of a reptile.* 
* In the perennibranchiate forms of the Amphibia, such as the Siren, the 
Proteus, and others, the developement of the sanguiferous and respiratory 
systems is arrested at that point of their growth which we have just been ob- 
serving in the present animal, at figure 9, at the point where the lungs have 
just begun to assume their functions, and before the branchie have undergone 
any diminution in their volume, Here they permanently remain ; and exhibit 
the extraordinary phenomenon of co-existent pulmonary and branchial re- 
spiration. 
