240 AEISTOTLE S ENAIMA, 



by the masculine form Echis, sometimes by the feminine 

 form Echidna, is the only snake which is ovoviviparous.* 

 Vipers bring forth their young alive, and under the name 

 Echis or Echidna may be included the common viper (Viper a 

 berus), the southern viper (F. aspis), and the sand viper (F. 

 ammodytes), which is said to be in the East what the common 

 viper is in the West.t 



Aristotle records the popular belief that the Salamandra, 

 probably the common spotted Salamander (Salamandra 

 maculosa) of southern Europe, puts out a fire if it walks 

 over it. I 



One amphibian, the Kordylos, mentioned by Aristotle, is 

 difficult to identify. He says that it is an amphibious 

 quadruped having gills but no lungs, and obtaining its food 

 on dry land, that it lives in marshes, || and that it has a 

 thin, flat tail, IT which is like that of Glanis (Parasilurus 

 aristotelis), to compare a small thing with a large one.** 



Gesner and Belon seem to have believed that Kordylos 

 was a water newt. Cuvier says : &quot; It is clear that these 

 characters,&quot; referring to those of Kordylos, &quot; can belong 

 only to the larva of the water newt, as M. Schneider has 

 very well seen.&quot; tt Sundevall considers that Aristotle s 

 animal is one of the water newts, and says that on each side 

 of the back part of the head of Triton palustris there is an 

 indication of the former existence of the gill slit in the 

 presence of a fold of rather tender skin, and that an ap 

 pearance such as this may have deceived Aristotle. 1 1 



No animal with which Aristotle can reasonably be sup 

 posed to have been acquainted serves as a good identification 

 of his Kordylos. The tadpoles of water newts, although 

 they have during certain stages of their development external 

 gills and four legs, do not go on dry land to obtain food, and 

 the tadpoles of frogs have no branchial apertures when their 

 front legs project beneath the skin. Aristotle seems to have 

 misunderstood the nature of the respiratory organs of water 

 newts, and his Kordylos is probably one of these. 



Among the other reptiles and amphibians described or 

 mentioned by Aristotle are Batrachos (the hog),Phryne (the 



* H. A. i. c. 6, s. 2, iii. c. 1, s. 14, v. c. 28 ; G. A. i. c. 10. 



f Exped. Sci. de Moree, 1836, vol. iii. part 1, p. 74. 



t H. A. v. c. 17, s. 13. H. A. viii. c. 2, s. 5 ; De Eespir. c. 10, 476a. 



|| H. A. i. c. 1, s. 7. If P. A. iv. c. 13, 6956. ** H. A. i. c. 6, s. 3. 

 ff Le Eegn. Anim. Paris, 836-7, Note on p. 47 of vol. on &quot; Eeptiles.&quot; 

 II Die Thierarten des Aristoteles, 1863, p. 187. 



