Observations on the Genus Salamandra. 223 



It will be readily presumed, that it was only after consider- 

 able attention, and minute anatomical investigation extended 

 to a variety of these animals, that I have ventured to give 

 publicity to the following observations. 



The Siren, the Proteus, the Amphiuma, the Triton lateralis 

 (Say) the Salamandra gigantea (Barton) or Alleghaniensis 

 (Michaux) must form a family of reptiles distinct from all 

 others, and these will again be naturally separated into such 

 as have branchiae, and such as have none ; all being furnish- 

 ed with nostrils and spiracula. Those which are provided 

 with persistent branchiae having the skull composed of many 

 separate bones, as the Proteus and S ren — those which have 

 spiracula, without branchiae or gills, having the skull compos- 

 ed of a solid piece, as the Amphiuma and Salamandra gigantea. 

 The Triton lateralis must not be confounded with the Tri- 

 tons* of Laurenti, or water-newts, (the Salamandra aquatica 

 of Cuvier) as, in the first place, these animals are furnished 

 with five toes to the posterior extremities and four to the ante- 

 rior : the Triton lateralis having only four toes to each extre- 

 mity. 2d. The T. lateralis is furnished with persistent gills — 

 in the Salamandra these organs are deciduous. 3d. The 

 T. lateralis has one rib less than the Tritons of Laurenti, and 

 the Salamandra proper. 



This difficulty could not escape the minute observation of 

 Mr. Say, who in his paper on the Triton lateralis (in the first 

 Vol. Major Long's Expedition) expressly states : " These four 

 or five species [viz. the Axoloil or Siren piriformis (Shaw) 

 the tetradacty 1 a (Lacepede) the Slrcne operculce (Beauvois) 

 and the Proteus JVeo- Casaricnsis (Green)] might with pro- 

 priety be separated from the genus to which they are referrible 



* Triton, as a generic term should be discarded, it having been originally 

 established bv Laurenti, who mistook the larvse of Salamandra: for perfect 

 animals, as was remarked by Cuvier, in his essay " Sur le Protee." (Voyage 

 de MM. Humboldt etBonpland.) 



