Observations on the Genus Salamandra. 227 



Organs of Sense. The eye is smaller proportionally than 

 in the common Salamanders, in which respect it resembles the 

 Axolotl; the ear, like that organ in the Salamanders, does not 

 appear externally. 



Organs of Digestion. Lower jaw furnished with a single 

 row of teeth ; upper, with two concentric rows, the interior 

 semicircular, at the posterior terminations of which are the 

 patulous openings of the posterior nares. Tongue free at the 

 anterior portion ; the operculum half way between the fore- 

 leg and the posterior termination of the rictus of the mouth ; 

 opercular cartilages, three in number, the opening between 

 the two inferior ;* their posterior extremities, unlike the Sala- 

 manders, are free, or not united to the vertebrae ; anteriorly 

 they are united by synchondrosis to the inferior cornua of the 

 os hyoides ; the bones of the tongue differ widely from the 

 same in the Salamandra. and Proteus, which will be compre- 

 hended by reference to the plate, and comparing them with 

 the figures in the elaborate works of the Italian naturalists : 

 " Descrizione Anatomica delle Salamandra aquatiche," by 

 Dr. Rusconi, and " Del Proteo anguino, monografia da 

 Configliachi," much better than from description ; the parts 

 were sketched, in situ, immediately after dissection, by Mr. 

 T. R. Peale, to whom I am also indebted for two spirited 

 drawings taken from life : one of this animal, the other of the 

 Triton lateralis. 



The oesophagus is short, and folded longitudinally ; the 

 stomach is large, and for the most part membranous, but be- 

 comes muscular near the p}dorus ; it contained two pebbles 

 about the size of the finger-end, and two others much smaller, 

 also the claw of a fresh-water lobster, whicn the animal had 



* In this respect the Salamandra Alleghaniensis agrees with the Amphi- 

 uma — in both, the operculi exist through life. In the Salmaandrm, and 

 other batracians, on the contrary, these openings do not exist in the adult 

 state. 



