REPT1LIA. 245 



Sal. altra LAUR., Syn. Rept. Tab. I. fig. 2, STURM DeutscJd. Faun., which 

 lives on high mountains. Both species are viviparous, but the last brings 

 forth only two young ones at a time, the first a much larger number, 

 twenty-four and more. See my Fraym. Zool. 8. 1. Batrac., Mem. de la 

 Soc. d' Hist. nat. de Strasb. m. The genus of the Land-salamanders appears 

 to be limited to these two European species. 



Order III. Batrachii s. Miura. 



Legs four. Tail in adults none. Lower jaw edentulous. 

 Cavity of tympanum with an Eustachian tube nearly in all. Re- 

 spiration in the larvae branchial, with branchiae external at first, 

 afterwards internal. 



Family IV. Batrachii. (Characters of the order those of the 

 single family. Skin naked, smooth. Anterior feet with four toes, 

 posterior with five. Rana L.). 



All are oviparous. The larvae of these animals breathe by 

 internal gills; during the first period of time external gills also 

 are present, as in the larvae of salamanders ; these gills have the 

 form of finger-shaped tubes, and are divided into two, three or 

 more lobes. They disappear a few days after birth, and then the 

 internal gills alone remain, which are attached to four pairs of carti- 

 laginous branchial arches connected with the tongue-bone; they 

 consist of small crests divided into numerous branches, and con- 

 tinue rudimentary on the last branchial arch, whilst on the first 

 they are arranged in a single, on the second in a double row. After 

 the disappearance of the gills, the tongue-bone also alters its form, 

 loses its branchial arches, and becomes flatter. The larvae, which 

 at first have no limbs, shew their hind legs first; the tail, very 

 large in some, disappears slowly by resorption, which proceeds from 

 the point to the base. 



Compare RUSCONI Developpement de la Grenouille commune, avec 4 pi. color. 

 Milan, 1826, 4to; MARTIN ST. ANGE Recherckes anat. et physiol. sur les 

 organes transitoires et la Metamorphose des JBatraciens, Ann. des Sc. not. 

 Tom. 24, 1831, pp. 366, 408 418; RATHKB Untersuchungen uber den 

 Kiemen-Apparat u. da* Zungenbein, 1832, 4to; LEREBOULLET Anat. comp. 

 de I'appareil respiratoire dans les animaux vertebres. Paris et Strasbourg, 

 1831, 4to, pp. 104, in, 112. 



Two chief works on this family are, R<ESEL Historia natiiralis Ranarum nos- 

 tratium, Norimb. 1758, folio, with excellent coloured figures, and F. M. 

 DAUDIN Histoire naturelle des Rainettes, des Grenouilles et des Crapaud*. 

 Avec 38 planches. Paris, xi. (1803). 



