AMPHIBIA. 307 



axolotls, occiu" in various parts of Mexico and the Western United 

 States (California, Wyoming). 



The greater number of tiie Old World salamandroids belong to 

 the genus Molge (or Triton), whose range extends from Great 

 Britain (M. cristata; M. palmata) to China and Japan (M. pyr- 

 rhogastra; M. Sinensis), and south to Syria and the Mediterranean 

 coast of Africa. The species having the most extended range ap- 

 pear to be M. cristata and M. vulgaris, both of which are distrib- 

 uted throughout the greater part of Europe, and largely also over 

 temperate Asia. The most northerly point reached by any species 

 seems to be about 63° 30' (M. vulgaris or aquatica, in Norway). 

 The Alpine triton (M. alpestris) ascends the Alps, according to 

 Fatio, to an elevation of about 8,000 feet (2,500 metres), while a 

 Mediterranean species (M. montana) inhabits the Lago d'Argento, 

 on Monte Cinto, in Corsica, at an altitude of 6,000 feet. The 

 genus Salamandra has three species, which collectively inhabit the 

 greater part of Central and Southern Europe, the Caucasus, Asia 

 Minor, and Algeria. Salamandra atra, the black or rain salaman- 

 der, inhabits the mountain - regions of Savoy, Switzerland, and 

 Austria between altitudes of 3,500 and 10,000 feet. 



The anurous, or tailless, amphibians (frogs and toads), which, 

 as has already been seen, comprise not less than eight hundred 

 species, enjoy a much broader distribution than the tailed forms, 

 being absent only from the regions of high northern and south- 

 ern latitudes, and the remote oceanic islands. The genera Rana 

 and Hj'la are each represented by a single species in the Solo- 

 mon Islands, and Cornufer (Ranidae) by three species (C. dor- 

 salis, C. Vitianus, C. unilineatus) in the Feejee Islands. The only 

 family that is entitled to be considered in any way cosmopolitan is 

 that of the toads (Bufonidae), which are only absent, apart from 

 local areas and the strictly oceanic islands, from Madagascar, New 

 Guinea, and New Zealand. The genus Bufo, which in itself com- 

 prises nearly eighty out of a total of some ninety species belonging 

 to the family, covers the entire range, with the exception of Aus- 

 tralia, where it is replaced by the genera Pseudophryne, Notaden, 

 and Myiobatrachus. The most broadly distributed species of the 

 genus is the common European toad or paddock (B. vulgaris), 

 whose range comprises practically the whole of Europe, Asia as 

 far east as Japan, and Northern Africa; in Switzerland it ascends 



