608 THE LIVING ANIMALS OF THE WORLD 



The colossus of the tailed Amphibian race is the GIANT SALAMANDER of China and Japan, 

 which may attain to a length of from 3 to 3} feet. The body, like that of the ordinary 

 salamanders, is broad and depressed ; but the eyes are very small, and have no eyelids; and the 

 tail, which is relatively short, is compressed, and has a fin both above and beneath. This 

 salamander lives entirely in the water, and is adapted for such an aquatic life by the 

 possession of both lungs and gills. In its native habitat it is most usually found in small, 

 clear mountain-streams, at elevations of from 700 to 5,000 feet above the sea-level, such 

 streams being often not more than a foot in width, and more or less overgrown with grasses ; 

 in these the adults are usually found curled round the larger stones, while the smaller ones 

 occupy holes and crevices among them. 



A representative of the tribe now commonly kept in aquaria is the Mexican AXOLOTL. 

 It has usually a velvety black skin, and grows to a length of 9 or 10 inches. As generally 

 known it presents a very newt-like aspect, or, more correctly, that advanced tadpole state of 



PJicto by Jamtt ff. C 



YELLOW PHASE OF SPOTTED SALAMANDERS 



The first four or five months of tilt young salamander' i life are passed in the -water 



the newt in which the external gills are most highly developed. The animals breed freely in 

 the water, eggs being laid, which pass through the earlier tadpole to the adult phase. Up to 

 within comparatively recent times the foregoing metamorphoses were supposed to represent 

 the Alpha and Omega of the animal's existence. Some exceptional examples, however, bred 

 in an aquarium in which rocks projected out of the water, surprised their owners by gradually 

 absorbing their supposed persistent gills, also their fin-like tail-membranes, and, crawling out 

 on the rocks, were transformed into ordinary salamanders. 



The OLM, or BLIND PROTEUS, of the subterranean caves of Dalmatia and Carniola is a form 

 with persistent external gills. Nearly allied is the North American form known as the FURROWED 

 SALAMANDER. The latter, however, living under more normal conditions, has well-developed eyes. 

 While possessing the customary number of limbs, the number of toes in the American type 

 is four to each foot. In the European Proteus there are but three toes to the front and two 

 toes to the hinder limb. In a yet lower form, the SlREN SALAMANDER of the South-eastern 

 United States, a yet more primitive persistently gill-bearing condition is presented. 



