2670 NEWTS, SALAMANDERS, AND CCECILIANS 



THE FISH-LIKE SALAMANDERS 

 Family AMPHIUMID^. 



The members of this family, which, for want of a better name, may be collec- 

 tively designated by a translation of their German \\i\e, Jischinolche, differ from the 

 Salamandrida in the absence of eyelids. The bodies of their vertebrae are al- 

 ways cupped at both ends. They are all characterized by the weakness of the limbs 

 in comparison to the body, and the wide separation of the front from the hinder 

 pair. They live chiefly or entirely in the water, and breathe by means both of lungs 

 and internal gills in the adult state. Only three genera are known, the first two of 

 which are so closely allied that it is a question whether they are really entitled to 

 rank as distinct. 



The earliest record that we have of this family is a skeleton from 

 mand *^ e u PP er Miocene of Oeningen in Basle, described by Scheuchzer in 

 the year 1726, under the name of homo diluvii testis; the learned doctor 

 believing that he had to do with a human skeleton, which, like all fossils at that 

 time, was considered to have been buried by the Noachian deluge. This fossil spe- 

 cies, which was fully as large as the existing giant salamander, together with a 

 smaller extinct species from lower Miocene strata near Bonn, probably belong to the 

 same genus. The giant salamander (Megalobatrachus maximus) was first discov- 

 ered in 1820 by Siebold in the rivers of Japan, but has been subsequently obtained 

 from China. As a genus, it is characterized by having four front- and five hind- 

 toes, the absence of a gill opening, and the presence of two internal gill arches. 

 The tongue covers the whole of the floor of the mouth, to which it is completely 

 adherent; while the palate has a curved series of teeth on the vomers, parallel to 

 those on the margin of the upper jaw. In form the giant salamander is very stoutly 

 built; the head being very large, wide, and flattened, with the muzzle regularly 

 rounded, the small nostrils situated near the extremity, and the eyes very minute. 

 The body is likewise broad and depressed; the legs and toes are short, the outer 

 ones, as well as the outer side of the hind-leg, having a membranous fringe; 

 and the short tail is strongly compressed, with a fin above and below, and its 

 tip rounded. The skin, which forms a thick fold along each side of the body, 

 is very warty, especially on the head; and the general color is brown with black 

 spots, becoming lighter on the upper parts. Although the ordinary length of this 

 salamander is about thirty-five inches, it is stated at times to grow to as much as 

 forty-four inches. 



Originally purchased by Siebold in the market of Nippon, the giant salamander 

 is now ascertained to inhabit not only the mountain streams of that island, but like- 

 wise those of several parts of the Japanese mainland, as well as of Western Central 

 China. Nowhere very abundant, the creature generally frequents the upper courses 

 of small mountain streams at elevations of from seven hundred to five thousand feet 

 above the sea level; some of these streams being not more than a foot in width, and 

 completely covered over with grasses and other herbage. The water is clear; and 



