Observations on the Genus Salamandra. 225 



doubt of its being a distinct species of the same genus describ- 

 ed by Mr. Say as the T. lateralis. 



The Salamandra tridactyla (Lacepede) is furnished with 

 scales, and possesses other characteristics of the lacerta (Vid. 

 Diet. d'Hist. Nat. Art. Sal.) The animal from the North 

 American Lakes, which Dr. Mitchill has described (in the 

 4th Vol. of Silliman's Journal, and more at large in the 7th 

 Vol. of the same) as a Proteus, and which he has strangely 

 confounded with the Salamandra Alleghaniensis (Michaux) or 

 that vulgarly termed " Hell-bender," and " Tweeg," in Dr. 

 Barton's description of the same, (Vid. Barton's Tracts, Vol. 

 II.) has in reality no affinity either to the Proteus or " Hell- 

 bender," but is simply a variety of the T. lateralis, with which 

 also the animal from Lake Champlain, described by Schneider 

 (in his Historia Amphibiorum, Fasc. 1st, p. 50.) as early as 

 1799, specifically corresponds,* notwithstanding Daudin er- 

 roneously supposed it to be the larva of the Triton Alleghan^ 

 ensis, and Mr. Say has since supposed it to be the larva of the 

 Salamandra Alleghaniensis. (Latreille, Vid. Vol. I. Acad. 

 Nat. Sciences, notes on Professor Green's paper on the An> 

 phibiae by Mr. Say.) 



The Salamandra Alleghaniensis is, I think, improperly 

 placed among the Salamandra. It differs in general form and 

 proportion ; it wants that remarkable characteristic of the 

 Salamandra., viz. " Anum habent vulvae muliebri simillimum." 

 Cuvier, after describing the Mexican Axoloil, remarks, " from 

 all of which I conclude, that the Axoloil of the Mexicans, or 

 Siren pisciformis of Shaw, is nothing more than the larva of 

 some gigantic Salamandra, probably precisely the same as the 

 Salamandra Alleghaniensis of Michaux." But in this he was 

 mistaken ; the Axolotl possesses every characteristic of the 

 larva of a Salamandra, though probably of a different species 



See page 57 of this Volume. 

 31 



