268 REPTILES AND BATRACHIANS 



fairly well developed. The tail is long and finned. The 

 animal, which has a rather elongate body, is chestnut- 

 brown, with large dark spots. The gills are very well 

 developed and the long fringes are bright red in colour. 

 The animal is more or less nocturnal, and I have known 

 captive specimens, when placed in strong light, to burrow 

 under the shingle of their aquarium until their heads were 

 entirely hidden. Although unable to live more than a few 

 hours on land, the amputation of the gills does not in 

 any way inconvenience specimens kept in water, the 

 gill-less animals breathing through their skin. 



NectuTus occasionally attains a length of two feet ; it 

 feeds on tadpoles, worms, and small Crustacea. 



The Proteus, Proteus anguinus, is restricted to the 

 subterranean waters of the caves in the mountains to the 

 east of the Adriatic, where it lives in complete dark- 

 ness. In accordance with its subterranean life, Proteus 

 is perfectly blind, while its skin, although containing dark 

 pigment in a latent condition, which appears on the 

 surface when the animal is exposed to the light for any 

 considerable time, is normally flesh-coloured. The body 

 is very slender and elongate ; the tail is short, strongly 

 compressed, and finned. Its maximum length may be 

 put down at about eighteen inches. 



Proteus is usually oviparous, laying some fifty eggs, which 

 hatch after a period of about ten weeks. The larvae, 

 measuring under two inches in length, have but two fingers, 

 the third appearing only at a much later date ; the eyes 

 are more exposed than in the adult animal. Although 

 oviparous in the cool waters of the caves it inhabits, 

 Kammerer has found that at a comparatively high 



