276 Barnes on Batracian Ammails and doubtful Repisis. 
the, mud, or enter into holes and crevices, and there pass the 
winter in a torpid state. In this state they appear to remaig 
stationary, needing neither food nor air, and neither inereas- 
ing nor diminishing in size, They have been dug out of the 
earth in situations where they must have been confined for 
years, and perhaps for ages. 
* * Branchia deciduous, tail persistent. 
(c) Teeth in both jaws. 
5 GENUS.—SALAMANDRA, saLamanper. 
Body long and tailed. 
Legs four, rather short. 
"Foes, four anterior, five posterior, without claws< 
Skin smooth and scaleless, 
Figures. Sonnini and Latreille Szepe. 
Synonyms. [acerta Salamandra. Linn. 
Triton. Laurenti. 
~ Water Newts. Water Lizards. Evets or Ebbets- 
Salamanders have a lengthened body, four feet and a long 
tail. They resemble lizards, and were so arranged by Lame, 
but they have all the characters of Batracians: head flat- 
tened ; ear concealed under the skin; jaws furnished with 
merous small teeth, and teeth in the palate ; skeleton with: 
movable rudiments of ribs. They respire by gills when 
young: in their mature state the gills are obliterated, and 
they respire by lungs, like frogs. The are all spawned mt 
fresh water, but a part of them usually live on land. Hence 
they are divided into two great families, as follows : 
1. LAND SALAMANDERS.—saLaManpRa&: Laurenti- 
These animals have a flattened fin-tail when young; and 
they then reside in the water. _ In mature age, they reside 
rincipally on land, and have a round tail. They are pro- 
duced alive, the eggs having been fecundated in the body of 
the female, hy means of a-milky fluid emitted into the water- 
When the tadpole drops his gills and fin-tail, he leaves the 
water, and becomes a Jand animal. The land salamander 
Bives rise to the fable of living in-firé, because when he is 
Haced.in it, he exudes a milky juice, which for a short time 
Tesists its action. What is more remarkable, is the opposité 
