SHORT STUDIES OF BATRAGHIANS. 339 



fatten on them, we should soon have a plague of toads. 

 As it is, we have not half enough. 



Every one of the preceding batrachians, ten in num- 

 ber, have been placed in an " order " called ANURA that 

 is, they are tailless. Perhaps this may seem contradic- 

 tory, for every one had a tail when it was hatched, and 

 with some this appendage was larger than the whole body. 

 In time, however, these tails dwindle away, and wonder- 

 fully well-developed legs appear, and no one, seeing a 

 frog or toad for the first time, would ever suspect that 

 once upon a time he sported a tail. 



Before completing our cursory glance at the batrachi- 

 ans we must again return to the haunts of the frogs and 

 turtles, for there are in these damp nooks and crannies 

 a whole host of creeping, slimy, and often gayly-painted 

 creatures, which the ignorant will persist in calling water- 

 lizards ; and generally a libel, to the effect that they are 

 poisonous, is added. These animals are collectively known 

 as salamanders, and may briefly be defined as lizard- 

 shaped, but with the body naked or without scales. Un- 

 like the frogs, they have tails not little stumps, but 

 long, slender, whip-lash appendages that wiggle as the 

 creature runs, and are of no earthly use whatever, and 

 probably never were. Indeed, snakes and turtles nip 

 them off very frequently, and the salamander seems to 

 thrive all the better for it. Indeed, so much are they 

 benefited by the operation, that a race of tailless sala- 

 manders ought long since to have been Darwinized into 

 existence. However, it has not been done, and, though 

 the tails are of no known use, yet the salamanders will 

 persist in cultivating the useless appendage. 



There is a strong family likeness running through the 

 list of these animals, which may number ten species in 



