SALAMANDER. 



tudinal stripes : the sides are marked by many 

 large, transverse wrinkles, the intermediate spaces 

 rising into strongly marked convexities ; and the 

 sides of the tail often exhibit a similar appearance : 

 on each side the back of the head are situated a 

 pair of large tubercles, which are in reality the 

 parotid glands, and are thus protuberant not only 

 in some others of the Lizard tribe, but in a re- 

 markable manner in the genus liana : these parts, 

 ,as well as the back and sides of the body, are beset 

 in the Salamander with several large open pores 

 'or foramina, through which exsudes a peculiar 

 fluid, serving to lubricate the skin, and which, on 

 any irritation, is secreted in a more sudden and co- 

 pious manner under the form of a whitish gluten, 

 f of a slightly acrimonious nature ; and from the 

 'readiness with which the animal, when disturbed, 

 "appears to evacuate it, and that even occasionally 

 to some distance, has arisen the long-continued 

 ''popular error of the Salamander's being enabled to 

 live uninjured in the fire, which it has been sup- 

 'posed capable of extinguishing b}' its natural cold- 

 'iiess, and moisture : the real fact is, that, like any 

 'bf the cold and glutinous animals, as snails, 

 *&c. it, of course, is not quite so instantaneously 

 "destroyed by the force of fire as an animal of a 

 cSrier nature would be. The general length of 

 "ffie Salamander is about seven or eight inches, 

 though it sometimes arrives at a much larger 

 %ze : in the number and form of its spots it varies 

 ^considerably, and is occasionally seen entirely 



