120 SALAMANDRID.E. 



Triton cristatus, LAUR. Spec. Med. p. 39, et 146, sp. 44. FITZ. Class. 



Kept. p. 66, sp. 5. BOAP. Icon. Faun. Ital. 



palustris, FLEM. Brit. An. p. 157. JENYNS, Brit. Vert. p. 303. 



Molge ,, MERRETT, Syst. Amph. p. 187, sp. 8. 



Warty lizard, PENN. Brit. Zool. III. p. 23, t. in. 



IF an instance were wanting to exemplify the obvious 

 fallacy of the opinion that external form is alone sufficient 

 to indicate the relations of animals, it would be impossible 

 to select one more striking and remarkable than that of the 

 tailed Amphibia ; and it is certainly not a little extraordinary 

 that Linnseus himself, notwithstanding the acuteness which 

 generally enabled him to pierce through the fallacious indi- 

 cations offered by external appearance, and to seize upon the 

 true relations of individuals and groups without being misled, 

 like most others of his day, by form alone, should in 

 this instance have failed to detect the latent affinities of 

 the group, and to appreciate the relative value of its cha- 

 racters. A want of more accurate knowledge, or, perhaps, a 

 degree of timidity arising from the novelty of the position 

 which he took, prevented this great man from always follow- 

 ing out the principles which his genius impelled him to adopt, 

 and doubtless led him to the inconsistencies with which he 

 has been too severely and indiscriminately charged. Be that 

 as it may, he certainly in the present instance not only 

 searched not below the surface, but failed even to appreciate 

 the importance of the character of the skin itself; a refer- 

 ence to which, and to several peculiarities in external struc- 

 ture might have led him to suspect, at least, the relations 

 which this part bears to that of the tailless Amphibia, and 

 especially of the Frogs. 



The generic form to which the present species belongs, ex- 

 hibits all the characters of the amphibia in as striking a point 

 of view, as either of those which have been already mentioned. 

 The naked and respirable skin, and the completeness of the 

 transformation, are not less obvious in the present than in the 



