5o) AMPHIBIALA. 



those granules which to us appeared whitest in its pale state ; and 

 we always found that when it grew brownest, and its skin spotted, 

 those grains which we had marked, were always less brown than the 

 rest." 



[Shaw. Mem. deV Acad. Royal. 



SECTION V. 



Salamander. 

 Lacerta salamander. Link. 

 The Salamander, so long the subject of popular error, and oi 

 which so many idle tales have been recited by the more ancient 

 naturalists, is an inhabitant of many parts of Germany, Italy, France, 

 &c. but does not appear to have been discovered in England. It 

 delights in moist and shady places, woods, &c. and is chiefly seen 

 during a rainy season. In the winter it lies concealed in the hollows 

 about the roots of old trees ; in subterraneous recesses, or in the 

 cavities of old walls, &c. The Salamander is easily distinguished 

 by its colours ; being of a deep shining black, variegated with large, 

 oblong, and rather irregular patches of bright orange-yellow, which, 

 on each side the back, are commonly so disposed as to form a pair 

 of interrupted longitudinal stripes : the sides are marked by many 

 large, transverse, wrinkles, the intermediate spaces rising into 

 strongly marked convexities j 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 remarkable manner in the genus Rana : 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 pecu- 

 liar fluid, serving to lubricate the skin, and which, on any irritation, 

 is secreted in a more sudden and copious manner under the form of 

 a whitish gluten, of a slightly acrimonious nature ; and from the 

 readiness with which the animal, when disturbed, appears to eva- 

 cuate it, and that even occasionally to some distance, has arisen the 

 Jong-continued popular error of the salamander's being enabled to 

 live uninjured in the fire, which it has been supposed capable of 

 extinguishing by its natural coldness, and moisture : the real fact is, 



