BATRACFITANS. (55 



C. tentacnlata, L. ; Amen. Acad. I, xvii, 1. One hundred and 

 thirty and odd plicae, every other pair of whicl), particularly near the 

 tail, does not completely encircle the body. It is black, marbled 

 with white on the belly*. 



Others have a much greater number of plica?, or rather of close, trans- 

 verse stria?. 



Ccec. glutinosa, L. ; Seb. XXV, 2; and Mus. Ad. Fred. IV, 1, 

 is of that number, having three hundred and fifty plicas, which unite 

 beneath at an acute angle. It is blackish, with a longitudinal yel- 

 lowish band along each flank. Found in Ceylon f. 



Finally, there are some in which the plicfe are almost effiiced ; 

 their body is very long and slender, and their muzzle salient. One 

 species is completely blind, the Ccec. lumbricoides, Daud. VIII, 

 xcii, 2; it is blackish ; two feet in length, and about the thickness 

 of a goose-quill J. 



ORDER IV 



THE BATRACHIANS§. 



The Batrachians have a heart composed of but one auricle and one 

 ventricle. They all have two equal lungs, to which are joined in the ear- 

 liest age branchias, that have some affinity with those of Fishes, and which 

 have cartilaginous arches on each side of the neck attached to the hyoid 

 bone. Most of them lose these branchiae, and the apparatus which sup- 

 ports them, when they attain their perfect state. Three genera only, 

 Siren, Proteus, and Menobranchus, retain them for life. 



As long as these branchi^ remain, the aorta is divided at its origin into 

 as many branches on each side as there are branchis. The branchial 

 blood is brought back by veins which unite near the back in one arterial 

 trunk, as in Fishes. It is Irom this trunk, or immediately from the veins 



* This Cfficilia is not more tentnculated than others of its subdivision. Add, 

 C. alhiventris, Daud. VII, xcii, 1: if it is not the same as the tentaculuta ; — C. inter- 

 rupta, Cuv., in which the white lines of the rings do not correspond with each other 

 beneath; — C. rostrata, Cuv., with a more pointed muzzle, and no white edges to the 

 rings. It is hard to say why Spix attributes upwards of two hvmdred plicce to liis 

 annulata; his figure shews but about eighty. 



t It is certainly from Ceylon, although Daudin places its habitat in America; as 

 we have received it from the former country through the politeness of M. Lesche- 

 nault; a closely allied species, it is triie, inhabits the latter — Ccec. bivitlata, Cuv. 



X Linnaeus mentions it, Mus. Ad. Fred. V, 2, but confounds it with the tentacnlata. 



We have the skeleton of a Caecilia more than six feet long, and ha\ing t\vo hun- 

 dred and twenty-five vertebrae, but of whose external characters we are ignorant. 



§ From the Greek word Batrachos (Frog), animals analogous to Frogs. 

 VOL, II. F 



