242 CLASS XV. 



Animal of the class Heplilia, Schick is hnoion in the United States by the names 

 of Alligator and Hell-hender. Philadelphia, 181-2, 8vo, with fig. (copied in 

 Griffith's Animal Kingdom, ix. p. 475) ; a pennanent gill-aperture behind 

 the head, in front of five legs. This animal is met with in many rivers of 

 N. America, and attains a length of 18", or, as has been asserted, even of 

 1'. It is named Tweeg by the Delaware Indians. Holbrook, in his North 

 American Herpetology, in 1842, made known another species, Menopoma 

 fuscum, V. PI. 33, from the west of S. Carolina. 



Cri/ptohrancMis japonicus nob., Salamandra maxima Schleg., Megalohatrachus 

 Sieioldii Tschudi, Tritomegas Sieboldii DuM. and Bibr., Schleg. Faun. 

 Japan., Bept. Tab. VI. — viii.; in this species, which becomes more than 3 feet 

 long, there is no gill-aperture present, or rather it has early disappeared. 

 It is the largest of all the known naked Amphibia, and is not distinguished 

 from Menopoma by any single generic character. Compare my article in 

 the Tijdschr. voor nat. Gesch. V. pp. 375 — 386, and in the Mem. de la Soc. 

 d'Mist. nat, de Strasbourg, 1840, ili. Fragmens zoologiques sur les Batraciens, 

 pp. 7 — II. To the same genus also belongs the extinct species met with 

 in the tertiary fresh-water formations of (Fningen, of which the remains 

 were formerly regarded as fossil hiiman bones. Scheuchzer's Homo 

 diluvii testis, Philos. Transact. 1726, p. 38, Cuvier Ann. du, Mus. xiii, pp. 

 411 — 420, PI. 30, figs. 2, 3, and Rech. sur les oss. foss.; Andrias Scheuchzeri 

 Tschudi, Class, d. Batr. Tab. 3 — 5. This species might be named Crypto- 

 branchus priinigenius. 



Siredon Wagl., Fitzingee [Axolotl Cuv., Axolotes Owen). 

 Brandiige persistent, large, with peduncle subulate and long, fili- 

 form fringes. Eyes moderate. Lower jaw slightly produced in 

 front of upper. Anterior feet tetradactylous, posterior penta- 

 dactylous. 



Sp. Siredon mexicanum, Siredon axolotl Wagl., Cuv., in Humb. Recueil 

 d'Observ. de Zool. 1. PI. xii.. Home Phil. Trans., 1824, i. p. 419, Tab. 21 

 ■ — 23, DuMER. et Bibr. Ilep>t. PI. 95 ; this species becomes 14" long, and 

 perfectly resembles a larva of Salamandra or Triton. 



Family III. Salamandrma. Respiration in the perfect state 

 solely pulmonal ; external hranchise in larv£e. Eyes with distinct 

 eyelids, moderate. Four feet, with carpus and tarsus osseous in 

 most; anterior tetradactylous, posterior almost always pentadac- 

 tylous. 



Salamandra ScHN. [Salamandra and Triton Laurenti). Cha- 

 racters of the family. 



Schneider has reunited the water-salamanders vv^ith tlie land- 

 salamanders, which Laukenti had separated from them under the 

 generic name of Triton; see his Hist. Ampliibior. natitr, et litter. 



