Mr. J. Hogg on some Amphibians. 121 



Cuvier, in the second edition of his ^Regne Animal' (1829), 

 bestowed the generic name of Dactylethra on the only one then 

 known, which had been discovered in South Africa, and which 

 is now called D. capensis. 



The Greek appellation of the genus, haKTvXr)9pa, properly 

 means a " case " or " sheath for the finger," i. e. a thimble ; and 

 it is clearly a very correct one for the sort of horny case which 

 covers three of the five toes of this curious animal. Dr. Gray 

 describes it as a " black horny claw, which covers the last joint 

 of the three outer toes and the spur of the hind foot.'' 



The same zoologist further describes this Toad as having its 

 skin " scattered with small white lines disposed in a symmetrical 

 manner, which, when examined by a magnifier of rather high 

 power, display linear series of close minute perforations or 

 glandular openings." 



These small perforations or pores are probably of use in 

 exuding, under a dry and hot atmosphere, a fluid that is service- 

 able in moistening the naked skin, which, in several species of 

 Frog, is known to perform the function of breathing. This 

 cutaneous respiration possessed by some of the Amphibians was, 

 I believe, first made known by Dr. Edwards, in Paris, more than 

 a quarter of a century ago; but how far that function may 

 assist, or be employed in lieu of, pulmonary respiration I have 

 not been able to learn. 



When I wrote my first paper on the " Classifications of the 

 Amphibia," which was published in the ' Magazine of Natural 

 History' (n. s. vol. iii. p. 265, 1839), I kept the genus Dactylethra 

 apart from the genus Pipa, and took the D. capensis as the type 

 of a distinct family, which I termed Dactylethrida. For so 

 doing, more than twenty-seven years since, several zoologists, 

 whose classifications were not in accordance with mine, censured 

 me; but I am now very happy to find that Dr. Gray has 

 adopted (p. 340) the family " Dactylethridse " as an established 

 one. Although this distinguished naturalist does not assign the 

 author to this family, yet by consulting Prof. Agassiz's * Nomen- 

 clator Zoologicus,' it will be seen that I was the originator of it. 



The entries in that useful work are as follow : — 



In the * Index Universalis' (p. 115), " Dactylethridae, Hoggy 

 Kept. Ad. 1838." 



Again, in the 'Addenda' to 'Reptilia' (p. 3), "Dactyle- 

 thridae, Hogg, Ann. Nat. Hist. i. 1838. Dactylethra. Pipa." 



And should the animal named by Dr. Gray Silurana prove a 

 distinct genus, and not the larval or tadpole-state of a species 

 of Dactylethra, it will constitute another interesting genus in 

 the family Dactylethridee. * 



Ann. i^ Mag. N. Hist. Set. 3. Vol.xvi. 9 



