244 CLASS xv. 



together by the gelatinous covering of the egg 1 . The European 

 species usually lose their gills as early as the third month ; but if they 

 have not lost them on the approach of winter, they retain them the 

 winter through, and themselves continue to grow. They are capa- 

 ble of propagating not before the third year, as has been noted of 

 our frogs. The larvae feed on aquatic insects, molluscs and worms, 

 as do the adult animals. Many species in the adult state live both 

 on land and in water. 



Of the exotic species we mention only the Salamandra unguiculata SCHLEG., 

 Salamandra japonica HOUTT., SCHNEID., which in the state of larva and at 

 the period of pairing has nails, a fact not observed in any other Salamander 

 or Prote'id. HOUTTUYN Ver/t. van het Zeeuwsch Genootschap der Wetensch. 

 ix. 1/82, p. 329, fig. 3 opposite p. 336, and SCHLEG. Faun. Jap., Kept., 

 Sour, et Batrach. Tab. 5, figs, i 5. TSCHUDI forms from this species his 

 genus Onychodactylus. In some species from North America, besides the 

 usual teeth on the palate (in the vomer), there are also teeth on the inferior 

 surface of the sphaenoid bone, set close together, as in a card. To such 

 belong the genera Hemidactylium, Plethodon and Cylindrosoma of TSCHUDI 

 (Spelerpes RAFIN.). Hemidactylium, Desmodactylus DUM., BIBR., like 

 Salamandrina FITZING. has only four toes on the hind feet ; to Salaman- 

 drina belongs Salamandra perspicillala SAVI, BONAP. Fauna Italic. Amfibi, 

 Tab. 84, fig. 8. (Of this Sal. tridactyla LAC. n. PI. 36, is an imperfectly 

 preserved specimen.) The sub-genus Pleurodeles MICHAHELLES, OKEN'S 

 Isis, 1830, s. 191 195, differs by the larger development of the ribs, of 

 which the points are visible at the side through the skin, TSCHUDI 1. 1. Tab. 

 i, fig. i, SCHLEG. Abbild. Tab. 39, figs. 2, 3. Compare on other sub-genera 

 TSCHUDI 1. 1. and SPENCER BAIRD, Revision of the North American tailed 

 JBatrachia, Journal of the Acad. of not. Sciences of Philadelphia. Sec. 

 Series, Vol. I. 1849, pp. 281 294. 



H" With tail round, fusiform. 



Salamandra LAURENTI, MERR. Head with a glandular, porous 

 tuber on each side behind the eyes. Anterior feet with four toes, 

 posterior with five toes. 



Sp. Salamandra maculata MERR., Lacerta Salamandra L., LATR. Salam. de 

 Fr. PI. i., STURM Deutschl. Fauna, Amph. Heft n., A. F. FUNK De Sola- 

 mandrce terrestris vita, evolutions, formatione; cum tdbulis cen. Beroliui, 

 1827, folio; yellow with black spots, or black with yellow spots; some- 

 times almost entirely black. Different however from this black variety is 



1 Such was the account given by BECHSTEIN in his translation of LACEP^DE, 

 Naturgesch. der Amphibien 2, s. 235, with which the observations of RUSCONI entirely 

 agree, Amours des Sal. aquat. pp. 21, 22, PL n. fig. 2. SPALLANZANI had said that 

 the eggs are laid adhering together in long strings; this has been repeated by later 

 writers, to whom the observations of RUSCONI might have been known. 



