FISH-LIKE SALAMANDERS, OLMS, &c. 393 
While in confinement, these Salamanders generally choose for 
their resting-place during the daytime the darkest and most 
retired part of the tank, coming up to the surface of the water for 
the purpose of respiration at intervals of from five minutes to half- 
an-hour, protruding, as they do so, only the end of the snout. 
Towards evening the creatures exhibit what little activity they 
possess, and take exercise or hunt for food. 
They may be fed upon frogs, worms, fish, and raw meat, when 
they can be persuaded to accept this last-mentioned article as food. 
They prefer fish, especially smelts. 
The members of the genus Megalobatrachus are characterised 
by the possession of a tongue which covers the floor of the mouth, 
to which it is entirely adherent; strong vomerine teeth, placed 
between the inner openings of the nostrils, and parallel with the 
intermaxillary and maxillary teeth; four fingers on each hand ; 
and five toes on each foot. There are no gill-openings, but there 
are two internal gill-arches. 
M. maximus has a very stout body; a large, broad, very 
depressed head, with rounded snout; extremely small eyes and 
nostrils ; a depressed body ; short, stout limbs, fingers, and toes ; 
a short, much compressed finned tail, with rounded end; a very 
porous skin, covered with tubercles, the largest of which are placed 
on the head. The colour is dark brown, spotted with black. 
These huge Salamanders may, from time to time, be bought of 
the larger dealers in wild animals, at prices, according to size, 
which range from £10 downwards. 
The Hell Bender, or Mississippian Salamander (Cryptobranchus 
alleghaniensis), is in many respects very like its gigantic relative 
of China and Japan. The chief differences between the two 
animals are that the former possesses gill-openings (at any rate 
upon the left side), four branchial arches instead of two, and a 
tongue which is free at its anterior border. 
The Hell Bender is found in all the tributaries of the Missis- 
sippi and the Alleghany rivers, in which waters it is occasionally 
taken on the hook of the angler, and is frequently erroneously 
regarded by him as poisonous. It does not often of its own accord 
leave the water. 
, Since 1869 it has been frequently brought to Europe, where it 
