CHAPTER II 



NEWTS, SALAMANDERS, AND COECILIANS ORDERS CAUDATA 



AND APODA 



ALPINE NEWTS. 



THE newts and salamanders are readily distinguished from the frogs and toads 

 by the retention of the tail throughout life. Hence they are collectively designated 

 the Tailed Amphibians. Although they have generally two pairs of limbs, in a few 

 instances the hind pair is wanting; and in all cases the bones of the limbs are of a 

 normal type, the radius and ulna in the front pair, and the tibia and fibula in the 

 hind ones remaining distinct from one another. In the skull the frontal bones are 

 not united with the parietals, and the palatine bones are distinct from the jawbones 

 or maxillae. Generally more or less lizard-like in form, the Tailed Amphibians un- 

 dergo a less marked metamorphosis than the tailless group, some even retaining 

 gills throughout life. As regards their geographical distribution, the salamanders 

 and newts, of which there are rather more than one hundred and twenty existing 

 species, are mainly characteristic of the Northern Hemisphere, being represented 

 only by a few scattered forms in the Southern Hemisphere, and quite unknown in 

 Africa south of the Sahara and in Australasia. The northern part of the Old World 

 is the home of Jthe true newts, of which four species extend into Northern Africa; 

 and it likewise contains one of the fish-like salamanders and the olm. True newts 

 (2656) 



