CLASS AMPHIBIA. 



CHAPTER II. 

 TAILED AND VERMIFORM AMPHIBIANS. 



THE TAILED AMPHIBIA Characteristics of those with Persistent Branchiae and of those that lose the Branchiae Early 

 in Life Skeletal Peculiarities THE SALAMANDERS Distinctive Features The Spotted Ellipsoglossa Why so called 

 The Tritons The Great Water Newt Its Ferocity Habits Appearance Rusconi's Observation of the Egg- 

 laying Process of the Triton Growth of the Embryo The Mature Tadpole The Power of Repair The Straight- 

 lipped Water Newt The Common Smooth Newt or Eft The Palmated Smooth Newt Distribution THE SALA- 

 MANDERS The Spotted Salamander Description Where Found Hibernation The Black Salamander Mdlle. 

 Marie de Chauvhrs Observations of the Changes of the Tadpole Salamander The Genus Pleurodeles The Genus 

 Pseudotriton Is the Bite of the Salamander Poisonous ? The Absurd Notion of their being Incombustible The 

 Genus Salamandiina THE PLETHODONTID.E The Genus Desmognathus THE AMBLYSTOMID.E The Axolotl Their 

 Life History The Amblystoma, or Adult Form THE ICHTHYOIDEA Characters THE PERENNIBRANCFIATA The 

 Sirens Appearance Habits THE PROTEID.E The Proteus The Genus Menobranchus THE DEROTREMATA The 

 Amphiuma Means The Amphiuma Tridactyla The Hellbender The Sieboldia Japonica THE APODA Charac- 

 ters Classification of the Amphibia THE EXTINCT AMPHIBIA. 



ORDER URODELA. THE TAILED AMPHIBIA, 



THE bodies of these Amphibia are long and rounded, tailed and webbed, and usually the fore limbs 

 are remote from the hinder. Their small limbs, the posterior being sometimes deficient, are useful 

 in enabling them to move on land, and, in some, in water. Their aquatic life might almost be 

 predicted from their shape, and especially in the case of those which have the branchiae on the 

 side of the neck persistent. Some live more on land, and have no branchiae during adult age, and are 

 aquatic. It appears that the branchiated kinds, and those with clefts, have biconcave vertebrae, and 

 that the others, which lose their branchiae early in life, have an articular head in front of the 

 vertebrae and a cavity behind. The first ally the others to the fish, and even a part of the notochord 

 is visible in them. The Urodela have rudimentary ribs, and in the tail there is an arch of bones 

 to protect its vessels. The skull, usually flat, is never completely ossified, and in the branchiated 

 kinds the cartilaginous and membranous parts of the young skull persist. The eyes are sometimes 

 rudimentary, and are placed beneath a transparent skin, and there is no tympanum. The teeth are 

 usually small and curved ; they are in a single row on the lower jaw, and they exist both on the 

 upper jaw and on the palate. The tongue is fixed below, and is free at its edge. The heart in some 

 has the auricular septum more incomplete than in the Batrachia, and in the Proteus there are three 

 branchial arches, and the bulb of the aorta splits into two trunks ; and by subdivision three pairs 

 of aortic trunks are formed, and the bases of the branchial artery and vein anastomose in the 

 first two gills, but not in the third. In others, and in the Salamanders, there are four pairs of 

 aortic trunks. 



The skin glands are found along the sides of some of the aquatic Amphibia, and also beneath the 

 jaws and on the top of the head. 



The Urodela are divided into sub- orders, the Salamanders and the Ichthyoidea, and these into the 

 Perennibranchiate and Deroti*eme groups. 



THE SUB-ORDER SALAMANDRIN^. THE SALAMANDERS. 



These Lizard-shaped Amphibia are tailed, and breathe by internal lungs. They have eyelids 

 which are horizontal, and the vertebrae are convex in front and concave behind. They have no 

 branchiae, or gill clefts, in their perfect or adult age, but some have them during their youth. More 

 or less Lizard-like in shape, the fore limbs are furnished with four and the hind limbs with five 

 digits. Their skin is glandular, viscid, and often secretes a milky liquid which is acrid. In some the 

 glands aggregate near the ear, as in the Toads, and some have the gift of changing colour, through 

 possessing movable colour cells. The males and females differ, and the first have a fin-like crest 

 iisually on the back and tail. 



They are usually divided into four families, and the first is typified by a Japanese kind which 

 appears to link the land-living and the aquatic Salamanders together. 



