BATIIACIIIANS. 75 



S. marmorata, Latr. ; Triton Gesneri, Laur. (The Marbled Sa- 

 lamander). Skin granulated; pale green above, with large irregular 

 brown spots; brown, dotted with white, beneath; a red line along the 

 back, which, in the male, is slightly crested and marked with black 

 spots. But slightly aquatic. 



aS*. alpestris; Salam. a fiancs tachetes, Bechst. tr. Lac. pi. xx. 

 (The Flank Spotted Salamander). Skin granulated; slate coloured 

 and brown above ; orange or red belly ; a band of numerous small 

 black spots on each flank. 



^S". cristata, Latr. (The Crested Salamander). Skin granulated ; 

 brown above, with round blackish spots ; orange beneath, similarly 

 spotted; sides dotted with white; crest of the male elevated, acutely 

 denticulate, and in the nuptial season edged with violet. 



S. punctata, Latr. (The Pointed Salamander). Skin smooth ; 

 a light brown above ; pale or red beneath ; round black spots every 

 where; black streaks on the head; crest of the male festooned; the 

 toes somewhat widened, but not palmate. 



S. palmata, Latr. (The Web-footed Salamander). Back, brown ; 

 top of the head vermiculated with brown and blackish ; paler on the 

 flanks, with round blackish spots; belly without spots. The male 

 has three small dorsal crests ; toes dilated and united by membranes, 

 and the tail terminated by a small filament*. 



Several aquatic Salamanders are also found in North Americaf . 



Skeletons of a Salamander three feet in length have been discovered 

 among the schist of CEningen. One of them is the pretended Fossil Man 

 of Scheuchzer. 



Immediately after the Salamanders come several very similar animals, 

 some of which are considered as never having had branchiae, that is, they 

 probably lose them at as early a period as our terrestrial Salamanders; the 

 others, on the contrary, retain them for life, a circumstance which by no 

 means prevents their having lungs like the Batrachians, so that they may 

 be considered as the only vertebrate animals which are truly amphibious;];. 



* The characters of the European species appear to me to be such as are most con- 

 formable to nature; to add the synonymes of authors would be a difficult task, so 

 little do their figures and descriptions agree with the animals before me. 



f Sal. symmetrica, Harl. which appears to me previous >. icpresented in Bechstein's 

 Lacep. II. pi. xviii, f. 2, under the name of Sal. punctata, and several species whose 

 descriptions I could not recognize, and which richly merit a monograph, accompanied 

 by good figures. 



X The simultaneous existence and action of the branchial tufts and of the lungs 

 in these animals, are as incontestable as any one of the most certain facts in natural 

 history; there are now before me the lungs of a Siren three feet long, in which the 

 vascular apparatus is as well developed and as complex as in any reptile whatever, 

 notwithstanding which, the branchiae of this same animal were as complete as those 

 of others. 



