5i4 



COLLEGE ZOOLOGY 



been found only in the caves of Austria. It is white, but if 

 exposed to the light may become dark and ultimately black. 

 It has rudimentary eyes. 



Typhlomolge rathbuni is a blind protean that came up with the 

 water of an artesian well one hundred and eighty-eight feet deep, 

 in Texas. It probably feeds on the crustaceans in under- 

 ground streams, since four species of these, all new to science, 

 came up along with the amphibians. 



Suborder 2. Meantes. — This suborder also contains a single 

 family, Sirenid^e, the sirens, and two genera, Siren and Pseudo- 



branchus, with one 

 species each. Siren 

 lacertina (Fig. 429), 

 the " mud-eel," bur- 

 rows in the mud of 

 ditches and ponds, 

 and swims by un- 

 dulations of the 

 body. It has three 

 pairs of gill-slits and four toes, and reaches a length of two 

 and one half feet. It inhabits the ponds and rivers from 

 Texas to North Carolina. Psendobranchus striatus has but 

 one pair of gill-slits and only three toes. It has been found 

 in Georgia and Florida. 



Suborder 3. Mutabilia. — Family Cryptobranchid^e. — 

 There are three genera, Cryptobranchus, Megalobatrachus, and 

 Amphiuma. Cryptobranchus alleghaniensis , the hellbender (Fig.. 

 430), occurs only in the streams of the eastern United States. 

 It reaches a length of from eighteen to twenty inches. Its food 

 consists of worms and small fish. Megalobatrachus maximus is 

 the giant salamander of Japan, the largest of all the Amphibia. 

 It feeds on fishes, amphibians, worms, and insects, and may 

 reach a length of over five feet. Amphiuma means, the Congo 

 " snake," is long and eel-shaped, and possesses two widely 

 separated pairs of small legs. It occurs in the marshes and 



Fig. 42g. — The " mud-eel," Siren lacertina. 

 (From the Cambridge Natural History.) 



