A M P H I L O B I U M A M P H I S B M N A. 



There are some, as the common frog, which have 

 gills and breathe water (.hiring 1 one stage of their 

 ln-ing, and have lungs and breathe air during another; 

 but they have not even the use of the two systems for 

 a single instant. The sealing up of the gills of the 

 tadpole previous to their being removed from the 

 system by absorption, as lumber for which there is 

 no longer any use, takes place before one atom of air 

 is inhaled by the newly perfected lungs ; and when 

 the seal of nature's condemnation is thus set upon the 

 organs which have accomplished their purpose, they 

 must go back to the common stock of materials, be 

 decomposed, and again produced by the same process 

 as at the first before they can again perform even one 

 single movement. 



What is meant by amphibia in the system of Cu- 

 vier is, therefore, nothing more than air-breathing 

 animals, which are so formed that they can find their 

 food, perform most of their other functions, and spend 

 the greater part of their lives under water ; and 

 which, in some parts of their bodies at least, retain so 

 much of the structure and appearance of animals 

 which live habitually on land, that they cannot be 

 classed with the CETACE.E, or whale tribe. There 

 are two genera of them, the seal (phoca), and the 

 morse (trichecus) ; to which the otter (lutra), and 

 perhaps the beaver (castor), might, without much im- 

 propriety, be added. Their appearances, habits, and 

 haunts, will be noticed under their respective names. 

 See plate AMPHIBIOUS ANIMALS. 



AMPHILOBIUM. A genus of plants of which 

 only one species is known ; a West Indian ever-green 

 creeper, considered ornamental. It is a didynamous 

 plant and belongs to the order Bignoniacctc. The calyx 

 is bell-shaped, the limb double, outer rank spreading, 

 undulated, or curled, the inner of two lips ; corolla 

 somewhat leathery, the tube being short, throat largely 

 bellying, limb two-lipped, the upper like a helmet, 

 the lower erect, having three teeth ; anthers two- 

 celled, stigma bi-lavnellate ; seed-vessel oval. 



AMPHIPODA. The third order of the Crus- 

 tacea, in Cuvier's arrangement of the animal kingdom. 

 Tlio bodies of these animals are generally compressed 

 and curved upon the sides ; the eyes are sessile and 

 immovable, mandibles furnished with a palpus, and 

 many of them have vesicular bursar? either between 

 their feet or at their external base, the use of which 

 is unknown. 



Pernys. 



The first pair of feet, or that which corresponds to 

 the second foot-jaws, are always annexed to a particular 

 segment, the first after the head. The antennae, which, 

 with the exception of the phrominee, are four in 

 number, projecting and gradually tapering to a point; 

 the tail is articulated and styliform. 



Many species of the amphipodes inhabit springs and 

 rivulets, others are met with in the salt waters , they 

 are always found reclining on one side, and in this 

 position they swim and leap about with much activity. 

 These animals may all be comprised in the genus Gam- 

 marus, although they are divided by authors into 

 various sub-genera. Among the most interesting spe- 

 eies is the Pernys, which is found on the coast at 

 Roclielle, wliere it wages continual war against the 



nereides, and other marine annulata, which inhabit the 

 same locality. When the tide is coining in, these 

 Crustacea present a curious spectacle ; myriads of 

 them may then be seen moving in every direction, 

 beating the mud with their arms, and diluting it so as 

 to discover their prey: when they do discover prey 

 larger than themselves they unite to attack and de- 

 vour it, which they never fail to do. The fishermen 

 even assert that they will mount on the hurdles which 

 contain their muscles, and cut the threads that confine 

 them, in order to precipitate them into the mud, 

 where they devour them at their leisure. 



AMPHIPRION. A genus of spinous-finned 

 fishes, belonging to (hat division of the Scfclnadcc 

 which have fewer than seven rays on the gill flay). 

 They have three spinous appendages to the gill lid, 

 only one row of teeth in each jaw, are richly co- 

 loured, and have peculiar appendages to the head. 

 They are natives of the warm seas, but their habits 

 and manners are very imperfectly known. 



AMPHISB^ENA. A genus of serpents of very 

 harmless and retiring character, of which, however, 

 many strange stories are told in books, and which 

 have been turned to account both by the sublime and 

 the ludicrous among the poets. Milton, in depicting 

 the most formidable of reptiles says, in sounding num- 

 bers : 



" Scorpion, and asp, and amphisbrena dire;" 

 and Arbuthnot (I believe) gives much point to 

 his satire on the two "dunces "who drew different 

 ways in their attacks on the Scriblerus Club, where 

 he says : 



" Thus, amphisbsena, as 'tis said, 



At either end assails, 

 None knows which leads or which is led ; 

 For both heads are but tails." 



The story was, that the amphisbaena had a head at 

 each end, or, at all events, could move indifferently in 

 the direction of either. What the amphisbaena of 

 the ancients may have been it is of little use to inquire, 

 perhaps it was the common blind worm (anguis 

 fragiKs), whidh, however, is not blind, though its eyes 

 are very minute. At all events their amphisbaena 

 could not have been one of the present species, which 

 are all natives of the warmer parts of America. 



They are nearly of equal thickness at both ends, 

 so that when the eyes are closed, and the tongue, 

 which is forky and glutinous, for assisting in the cap- 

 ture of the insect food, not protruded, it is not very 

 easy to determine which is the head. 



They are the most gentle and harmless of all the 

 serpent tribe. They do not poison, or crush in their 

 folds, or swallow with distended throats. Their 

 mouths are small, with only a single row of minute 

 teeth in each jaw, and their gape is narrow. 



They inhabit ant-hills, and subsist entirely, or 

 chiefly, upon the legitimate inhabitants of them. 

 Hence they have been sometimes called "kings of the 

 emmets," though their only attribute of royalty, if indeed 

 that be one, is devouring their subjects by wholesale. 



Gentle as they are in their manners, they are not 

 less perfectly adapted to their way of life than the 

 most formidable serpents of the bush. The uniform 

 thickness of their bodies, the arrangement of their 

 small four-cornered scales, which they can elevate at 

 right angles to the plane of their length; and the 

 wriggling motion, with which they twine along, enable 

 them to move through the soft earth of the ant-hills 

 with either end foremost. 



There are several species and varieties, the best 



