NATURAL HISTORY. 



807 



extcad over the whole body, and 

 even to the feet and eye-lids ; some 

 of these spots are besprinkled with 

 small black specks ; and those 

 Mhich are upon the back often 

 touch, without interruption, and 

 form two long yellow bands. From 

 the figure of these spots, the sala- 

 ' mandcr has got the name of stellio, 

 as well as the green lizard, or real 

 stellio; and the geckottc or laccrta 

 inauritanica. The colour of the 

 land salamander must, however, 

 be subjcc^t to vary; and it appears 

 that some are found in the marshy 

 forests of Germany, which are quite 

 black above and yellow below*. 

 To this variety we must refer the 

 black salamander, found by Mr. 

 Laurentl, in the Alps, which he 

 considered as a distinft species, and 

 which appeared to me to have too 

 near a resemblance to the common 

 salamander to be separated from 

 it +. 



The tail, which is almost cylin- 

 drical, appears to be separated into 

 diflerent divisions, by circular rings 

 composed of a very soft substance. 



The laud salamander has no ribs, 

 neither have frogs, to which it has 

 a great resemblance in the general 

 form of the anterior part of its body. 

 When touched, it suddenly covers 

 with that kind of coat of which we 

 have spoken, and it can also very 

 rapidly change its skin from a state 

 of humidity to a state of dryness. 



The milk which issues from the 

 small holes in its surface is very 

 acrid ; when put upon the tongue, 

 one feels as it were a kind of scar at 

 the part which it touches. This 

 milk, which is considered as an ex- 

 cellcut substance for taking oil' hair, 



has some resemblance to that which 

 distils from those plants called esula 

 and euphorbium. When the sala- 

 mander is crushed, or when it is 

 only f)ressed, it exhales a bad smell, 

 which is peculiar to it. 



Land salamanders are fond of 

 cold damp places, thick shades, 

 tufted woods, or high mountains, 

 and the banks of streams that run 

 through meadows ; they sometimes 

 retire in great numbers to hollow 

 trees, hedges, and below old rotten 

 stumps ; and they pass the wiuter in 

 places of high latitude, in a kind 

 of burrows, where they are found 

 colle6ted, several of them being 

 joined and twisted together. The 

 salamander being destitute of claws, 

 having only four toes on each of 

 the fore feet, and no advantage of 

 conformation making up its defici- 

 encies, its manner of living must, 

 as is indeed the case, be very difi'er- 

 ent from that of other lizards. It 

 walks very slowly; far from being 

 able to climb trees with rapidity, 

 it often appears to drag itself with 

 great difficulty along the surface of 

 the earth. It seldom goes far from 

 the place of shelter which it has 

 fixed on ; it passes its life under the 

 earth, often at the bottom of old 

 walls during summer ; it dreads the 

 heat of the sun which Avould dry it, 

 and it is commonly only when rain 

 is about to fall, that it comes forth 

 from its secret assylum, as if by a 

 kind of necessity, to bathe itself, 

 and to imbibe an element to which 

 it is analogous. Perhaps it finds 

 then with the greatest facility those 

 insc6ts on which it feeds. It lives 

 ui)on flies, beetles, snails, and earth 

 worms; when it reposes, it rolls 



• Matthiolus. 



t Salamandra at^a Laurcuti Specimen Modicum. Vienna;, 1768, p. 179. 



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