256 ZOOLOGY. 



very slender body, with a long tail, which is sometimes much longer than 

 the body. The species are very active in their movements, and inhabit 

 the edges of streams under flat stones. They are distributed throughout 

 North America, although none as yet are known from the regions west of 

 the Rocky Mountains, where, however, it is represented by an allied genus, 

 BatrachosejJS, with but four toes on the hind feet. 



It is among the European salamanders that the genera Salamandra and 

 Triton are still retained. There are others, however, in considerable 

 number. To the former genus belongs S. maculata {pi. 89, Jig. l), the 

 famed salamander of antiquity, respecting which many fables as to a 

 highly venomous bite and a power of resisting the action of fire were 

 long current. The animal is ovo-viviparous, the eggs being retained in 

 the oviduct of the female until ready for hatching, upon which they are 

 conveyed to the water, and the branchiated young there deposited. The 

 changes experienced by the young, as well as the general appearance and 

 habits of the adult, present a not uninteresting similitude to what is 

 observed in the case of Ambystoma punctata already referred to. A 

 remarkable fact, which has been observed in a second species, S. atra, will 

 recall a similar provision in the case of the ostrich. The female retains 

 the eggs in the oviduct until they are hatched ; the number of young 

 produced amounts, however, to but two, which are born without branchiae, 

 and consequently without a necessity of being deposited in water. The 

 actual number of eggs laid amounts, however, to about twenty, and the 

 eighteen are destined merely to serve as food for the young larvae after 

 birth. It has already been observed that the restricted genus Salamandra 

 differs from the American genera in the possession of parotid glands. The 

 vomerine teeth form an angular row, the body is thick and clumsy, and the 

 toes are four in front and five behind. A genus, Salamandrina, differs 

 from other European genera in the possession of but four toes on the hind 

 feet. The genus Triton, differing essentially from the American genus 

 Notophthalmus., yet bears a striking external resemblance to it ; and the 

 habits, as detailed by Rusconi and others, are also very similar. It was 

 upon species of Ttnton that the cruel experiments of Bonnet, Dumeril, and 

 others, were performed as to the reproduction of lost parts. Toes were 

 cut off", and indeed entire limbs and the tail were removed many times in 

 succession, and an individual lived for many months which had had the lungs 

 extirpated and the entire face cut away, leaving nothing but the cranium. 

 Conspicuous species are to be found in T. taeniatum [pi. 89, Jig. 2) and T. 

 cristatum {pi. 81, Jig. 32). The remaining genera, the names alone of 

 which we can mention, are, Geotriton, Euproctus, Bradyhates, Pleurodeles, 

 Glossoliga, and Megapterna. 



The Japanese species belong chiefly to the genus Onychodactylus, 

 known especially for the claws developed during the breeSing season ; 

 Cynops, with a supra-orbitar foramen, and a skull almost precisely like 

 that of Notophthalmus, but with parotid glands ; and Hynohius. The 

 species are but five in number. 



The last form to be mentioned is the genus Anaides from the Island of 

 460 



