86 NATUKAl, HISTORY 



coralline Eilis) asserts, in a letter to the 

 Royal Society, dated June the 5th, 1766, in 

 his account of the innd inguana, an amphi- 

 bious bipes from South Carolina, that the 

 water-eft, or newt, is only the larva of the 

 land-eft, as tadpoles are of frogs. Lest I 

 should be suspected to misunderstand his 

 meaning, I shall give it in his own words. 

 Speaking of the opercula or coverings to 

 the gills of the mudinguana, he proceeds to 

 say that '' The form of these pennated co- 

 '* verings approaches very near to what I 

 " have some time ago observed in the/a?i;rt 

 ** or aquatic state of our English lacerta, 

 " known by the name of eft, or newt; 

 " which serve them for coverings to their 

 " 2-ills. and for fins to swim with while in 

 " this state ; and which they lose, as well 

 ** as the fins of their tails, when they 

 " chamre their state and become land aiii-r 

 *• malsy as I have observed, by keeping 

 " them alive for some time myself/' 



Linufcus, in his Sij.stema Nalurce, hints 

 at what Mr. Ellis advances more than 

 once. 



