28 REPTILES AND BIRDS, 
venomous matter was really contained in follicles in the true skin, and 
chiefly about the head and shoulders, although also distributed over 
other portions of the body. He also pronounced it to be extremely 
acrid, but innocuous when introduced into the circulation. A 
chicken inoculated with it was unaffected ; thus, Dr. Davy conjectures 
that this acrid liquid is the animal’s defence against carnivorous 
mammalia. A dog, when urged to attack one, will drop it from its 
mouth in a manner which leaves no doubt that it has tasted the 
secretion. 
In opposition to these opinions a story is told in France of a 
lad who had thrust his slightly-wounded hand into a hole, intending 
to seize a lizard which he had seen enter. In place of the lizard he 
brought out a large toad. While holding the animal, it discharged a 
milky yellowish-white fluid, which got introduced into the sore, and 
this poison occasioned his death; but it is not stated whether the 
boy was previously healthy or not. 
Warm and temperate regions with abundant moisture are the 
localities favourable to all the Batrachians. Extreme cold, as well as 
dry heat, and all sudden changes, are alike unfavourable to them. In 
temperate climates, where the winters are severe, they bury them- 
selves under the earth or in the mud at the bottom of pools and 
ponds, and there pass the season without air or food, till returning 
spring calls them forth. 
The species of this family are very numerous. MM. Duméril 
and Bibron state that the Frogs (fama) number fifty-one species, 
the tree frogs (#/y/a) sixty-four, and the Toads (/z/o) thirty-five. 
They are found in all parts of the world, the least variety of the race 
being found in Europe, and the largest in America. Oceania is well 
supplied with the Tree Frogs. There are several curious forms in 
Australia, and one species only is known to inhabit New Zealand. 
The enormous fossil. Zabyrinthodon, of a remote geological era, is 
believed to have been nearly related to these comparatively very 
diminutive Batrachians.* 
TAILED BATRACHIANS 
Sometimes called Urodeles, from ovpd, “tail,” 54A0s, “manifest.” The 
constant external character which distinguishes these Amphibians in 
* In Dr. Giinther’s Catalogue of the Batvachia saltentia (as Dr. Gray terms 
them) in the collection of the British Museum, published in 1858, and which 
includes all the ascertained species up to the time of publication, as many as 282 
are enumerated, which are arranged under twenty-five groups holding the rank of 
families. —ED. 
