TWO-LEGGED SALAMANDERS, 



309 



with the preceding family in the permanent retention of external gills, they are 



distinguished by the total loss of the hind-lirnbs, and likewise by the absence of 



teeth in the margins of the jaws. The siren salamander (Siren lacertina), which 



inhabits the South-Eastern United States, may be compared to a snake furnished 



with a pair of short fore-legs and external gills ; and is especially distinguished by 



the presence of three pairs of 



gill-openings on the sides of 



the neck and the four-toed feet. 



The smooth skin is either 



uniformly blackish, or marked 



with small white dots, and the 



total length reaches to as much 



as 28 inches. The Georgian 



two-legged salamander (Pseu- 



dobranchus striatus), on the 



other hand, has only a single 



pair of gill - openings on the 



neck, and but three toes to 



the feet. These salamanders 



are stated to frequent swampy 



localities, especially pools of 



water beneath the roots of old 



SIREN SALAMANDER. 



trees, up the stems of which 



they will sometimes climb. A living example was received in England in 1825, 

 where it lived till 1831. This specimen was fond of coming out of the water to 

 rest on sand or among moss; and in summer ate worms, tadpoles, and various 

 other small creatures, but became torpid from the middle of October till the end 

 of April. That these salamanders can breathe entirely by means of their lungs, 

 is proved by a specimen in an aquarium whose gills had been eaten off by a fish. 



THE CCECILIANS OR WORM-LIKE AMPHIBIANS. 

 Order APODA. 



The remarkable worm-like and blind amphibians forming this group are 

 generally regarded as the representatives of a distinct order ; although they are 

 considered by Professor Cope to be merely a degraded branch of the Tailed 

 Amphibians, to which they are allied through the fish-like salamanders. Be this 

 as it may, the group is readily distinguished by the total absence of limbs, and the 

 general worm-like appearance of the head and body ; the tail being either 

 rudimental or wanting. In the skull the frontal bones are distinct from the 

 parietals, but the palatines are fused with the maxillae. As regards their 

 reproduction, these amphibians differ from the newts and salamanders in that the 

 two sexes come together in the ordinary manner. Some of them are peculiar in 

 having overlapping scales embedded in the skin, like fishes ; and in all the eyes 

 are either wanting, or are so deeply buried beneath the skin as to be entirely 



