70 VERTEBRATA. REPTILIA. 



are small and close to the mouth ; the body is 

 wrinkled, and the toes of the fore feet terminate in 

 four little rays. But the most singular point of their 

 economy is, that the male takes the eggs as they 

 are laid, and places them on the back of the female, 

 to which they adhere : she at once goes to the 

 water, the skin then swells, and breaks out into little 

 cells, in which each egg is hatched, and in which 

 the young dwell till they quit the tadpole state. 

 The mother then, having rubbed off the old skin 

 of her back, returns to the land. This species is 

 called the Surinam Toad (P. Surinamensis). 



Salamandra,* the Salamanders. 



In form these animals resemble Lizards, but their 

 skin is naked, and in their structure and economy 

 they agree with the Frogs, passing through the 

 same tadpole state in youth, and undergoing the 

 same transformations. The gills of their early state 

 appear externally in the form of tufts elegantly 

 branched, and the fore feet are first formed. In 

 their perfect form they have a long tail, generally 

 flattened, and furnished in the aquatic kinds with 

 a fin-like membrane above and below. 



Some of them are terrestrial in their habits, re- 

 siding in damp and dark places, under stones, in 

 subterraneous caves, and old buildings, as the common 

 Salamander of Europe, (S. Maculosa,} an animal of 

 considerable size, black, with orange spots on the 



* The Greek name of the genus. 



