224 Observations on the Genus Salamandra. 



in the present state of the system, and placed in a separate 

 genus, the external characters of which will be the same 

 as those of Triton, with the exception of the persistent 

 branchiae.* Its proper station will doubtless be intermediate 

 between Triton and Proteus, but far more closely allied to the 

 former."f 



The animal described as the Sirene operculee by M. P. 

 de Beauvois, (in the 4th Vol. of the American Philosophical 

 Transactions,) is furnished with four legs, and five toes to the 

 posterior feet — it is merely the larva of a Salamandra, similar 

 to that described by Professor Green, in Vol. I. of the Journal 

 of the Acad. Nat. Sciences of Philadelphia, as the Proteus 

 JYeo- Ccesariensis. 



But the animal described by Lacepede, (in the 10th Vol. of 

 the Ann. du Mus.) is worthy of particular notice. He named 

 it " Un Piotee, ou Salamandre tetradactyle ;" and states 

 that the place of its habitation is unknown, and the internal 

 structure was not examined. It is furnished with four legs 

 and four toes to each foot, with persistent branchiae ; the form 

 of the tail, and general external appearance, to judge from 

 the plate, resembles the Triton lateralis ; but both jaws pos- 

 sessed a double row of teeth, and a collar formed by a fold 

 of the skin partially surrounds the superior portion of the 

 neck, immediately anterior to the branchiae. I have little 



* To this exception he should have added, that all the species he has 

 mentioned, excepting the second, have Jive toes to the posterior extremi- 

 ties. 



f I am happy in having- it in my power thus early to correct an error I 

 have made in detailing- the anatomy of the T. lateralis, in the paper above 

 alluded to, wherein I have stated that " the olfactory apparatus is similar to 

 that of fishes, having- no posterior nares, &c." This is incorrect. In ex- 

 amining lately a specimen of this animal, I observed these openings, which 

 are situated in the space between the two rows of teeth at their posterior 

 termination ; they are covered over by a valvular production or duplicature 

 of the lining membrane of the mouth, which circumstance misled me. 



