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A M P H I S I L E A-M P U L L A R I A. 



known of which is A. fuliginosft, which grows to the 

 length of eighteen inches, and is of a brown colour 

 more or less marked with white. The tail is very 

 short, and the eyes are nearly concealed by mem- 

 branes. The rings of scales are very numerous, not 

 fewer than two hundred on the body. A. (Ma is not 

 white, but of a pale straw colour. There are many 

 species in the warm parts of South America and in 

 the West Indies ; but there is little interest in them. 

 It does not appear that any of them have been found 

 in other parts of the world. They are viviparous. 



AMPHISILE. A genus of spinous-h'nned fishes, 

 belonging to the natural family of those which have 

 the mouth pipe-shaped, or small and produced. Their 

 backs are fortified with strong scaly plates, of one 

 of which the spine of the first dorsal fin appears 

 to be a continuation. They, like most of the family 

 in which they are arranged, are fishes of singular 

 shape. They inhabit the tropical seas. 



AMPHITRITES, a family belonging to the class 

 Annulata of Cuvier, and to the order Tubicoli ; they 

 are easily recognised from the other annelides by 

 their golden coloured seta?, which are arranged like a 

 crown, or the teeth of a comb in one or two rows, on 

 the anterior part of the head, where they probably 

 serve as a means of defence, or, as the baron Cuvier 

 suspects, they enable the animal to crawl about so as 

 to collect the materials of its little dwelling. This 

 name w r as originally applied by Muller to a generic 

 group, to which he added the Tercbella and Sabclla 

 of Linnaeus. Lamarck and Cuvier have since adopted 

 the same with some modifications, and Savigny has 

 formed them into a family, which he divides in five 

 genera : the animals belonging to this family have 

 from one to three pairs of branchiae, more or less 

 complicated, fixed to the foremost part of the body ; 

 the feet are very unlike the other families of this 

 order, the first pair being entirely without branchiae, 

 and the second, on the contrary, having a great many 

 of them. Numerous tentacula encircle the mouth, 

 and on each side of the fore part of the back are 

 pectiniform branchiae ; the skin which envelopes the 

 body is thin and transparent. 



Some of the amphitrites construct light tubes of a 

 conical figure which they carry about with them, 

 formed by the assemblage of grains of sand, fragments 

 of shells, and other remains, which are held together 

 by means of a sort of mucus which exudes from the 

 animal, and which seems to serve as a sort of glue 

 applied in the same way that many birds and other 

 terrestrial animals construct their nests ; these ani- 

 mals inhabit the ocean ; many of them are found in 

 the Mediterranean, and indeed on most other sea 

 coasts, but like all other annelides and soft-skinned 

 animals, their history is very obscure, and in all pro- 

 bability will long remain so, from the little interest 

 they excite, although no doubt they also have an 

 important part to perform in the scale of creation. 



AMPHIUMA. A singular, genus of Batrachian 

 reptile, which is described as inhabiting the waters of 

 certain parts of the American continent. This, as 

 well as several other analogous genera, which are all 

 American, resemble the common water eft, more than- 

 they do any other British reptile ; but some of their 

 characters are so peculiar that they stand alone. In 

 their physiological character they resemble the frog, 

 though they differ less or more from that animal, ac- 

 cording to the genus. In the first stage of their lives 

 they are tadpoles, living only in the water, breathing 



by gills, and having swimming tails, but not even rudi- 

 ments of feet. As they advance to maturity, luntrs arc 

 formed, and four or two rudi mental feet are produced ; 

 and these changes are in some instances accompanied 

 by an absorption of the gill, so that they afterwards 

 breathe air by means of lungs only. In oilier cases, 

 however, the gills remain as well as the lungs, and 

 they can use either system at pleasure. 



The genus under consideration have the body long, 

 and bearing some resemblance to that of an eel, only 

 the tail is more pointed and they have no fins. The 

 feet are very small, and far apart, one pair near the 

 head and the others at the insertion of the tail. 

 They are not adapted for walking, though from being 

 furnished with lungs, the creatures can live out of the 

 water. The feet are merely a sort of swimming power, 

 though they may assist in crawling through the mud. 

 There are two species named, the chief distinction of 

 which is, that the one has three rudimentul toes on 

 each foot, and the other only two. 



They are found chiefly in the shallow stagnant 

 waters of the southern parts of North America ; and 

 as these are at certain seasons apt to be dried up, the 

 double system of respiration comes into use, and they 

 are enabled to scramble in quest of pools, breathing 

 the air as they proceed ; but when they again reach the 

 water, they assume their aquatic habits. They are 

 produced from spawn, something after the manner of 

 frogs. 



AMPHODUS. A climbing evergreen perennial, 

 a native of Trinidad. The flowers are diadclphons, 

 and of course arranged in the order Lcgnminosee. The 

 calyx is bell-shaped, in five divisions, each oval-shaped, 

 the upper ones approximating ; vexillum turned back, 

 with inflexed teeth at the base ; filaments leaning 

 back, keel narrow ; pod linear, flattened irregular. 



AMPULLARIA (Cuvier, Lamarck). Helix 

 (Linnaeus). A shell of the second order, Asij>//<>- 

 nobranchiata ; the third family, Ellipxw.iomatu of 

 Blainville's System of Malacology. 



The animal is globose, spiral, the foot oval, with a 

 transverse groove at its anterior side ; the head large ; 

 the upper tentacula very long, conical, and sharp 

 pointed ; the eyes situated at their external base, and 

 supported on a very delicate peduncle; mouth ver- 

 tically situated between two horseshoe-shaped lips, 

 forming a species of snout ; no upper tooth, a bristled 

 lingual cord, but not prolonged into the abdominal 

 cavity ; the respiratory cavity very large, divided into 

 two parts by an incomplete horizontal separation. 



The shell is thin, globular, inflated and umbilicatod ; 

 the spire very short, the last turn larger than all the 

 others united ; the aperture oval lengthwise, not so 

 wide as it is long, the edges united, the exterior lip 

 sharp, and without any callosity ; the operculum is 

 generally horny (though some species have it calca- 

 reous), thin, oval, without a spire, but formed in 

 concentric circles, obliquely overlapping the right 

 side of the aperture, but attached to the left side in 

 a small groove. These shells sometimes attain to a 

 great size, and probably it is one of the species, the 

 AmpulJaria crastatina, whose inhabitant formed a 

 gastronomic delicacy at the repasts of the luxurious 

 Romans, by whom they were kept in stews called 

 eochlearia, and fed upon bran and wine-lees, till they 

 acquired an enormous size, and possessed the desired 

 degree of juicy perfection. Varro, indeed, informs 

 us that they sometimes were able to contain ten 

 or more ; a size so incomparably greater than 



