140 DIVISION I. VERTEBRAL ANIMALS.— CLASS WT. REPTILIA. 
which is covered with a glutinous substance, to which whatever it touches 
adheres.” 
The Frog is not only capable of existing with a small portion of nourish- 
ment, but will live several hours after the head has been severed from the 
frame; and schoolboys frequently, in the wantonness of cruelty, strip the 
unfortunate creatures of their skin for the purpose of seeing how much vigor 
they are possessed of, though suffering the most excruciating torture and 
pain. 
One species (Ceratophoros) has a very broad head, and a horn-like prom- 
inence over each eye. The Dactylethra is a South African species, with 
pointed toes. The Tree-frogs (//yla) have their toes formed into “a sort of 
viscous palette,” by means of which they climb trees, where they dwell during 
summer, feeding on insects. They seek the water, however, like the other 
frogs, for the purpose of depositing their eggs, and spend the winter in a 
state of torpor, buried in the mud. 
Genus Buro.—The Toads. This group is composed of animals of a 
most hideous and disgusting form. Their thick, squat bodies, covered with 
tubercles, and a large swelling behind each eye, from the pores of which 
exudes a fetid, milky secretion, renders them peculiarly disagreeable to, the 
sight. A singular species, the Rana pipa, of Linneus, is peculiar to South 
America. The body is horizontally flattened ; head large and triangular ; 
tongue wholly wanting; tympanum concealed beneath the skin; small eyes 
placed towards the margin of the upper jaw, and each of the front toes 
split, at the tip, into four little points. It inhabits the obscure nooks of 
houses in Cayenne and Surinam, and has a granulated back, with three lon- 
gitudinal ranges of larger granules. The male places the eggs of the female 
upon her back, where they are fecundated, upon which the female returns 
to the water, the skin of her back swelling so as to form a number of cells, 
which enclose each of the eggs, and wherein the young pass their tadpole 
state until they have lost their tails, and developed their limbs, at which time 
the mother returns to land. 
Genus SaLnamManper. — The Salamanders. These animals were once 
believed to have the power to resist excessive heat, and dwell comforta- 
bly in the hottest fires. We need not say that no such creatures exist. The 
opinion probably arose from the circumstance that the Salamander expresses 
from the pores of its body a profuse liquid, which enables it, for a short 
time, to withstand the action of fire. 
They have an elongated body, four limbs, and a long, thick tail. The 
head is flattened, and the jaws are armed with numerous small teeth. The 
tadpoles breathe at first by gills, in the form of crests, three on each side 
of the neck. The adults respire in the same manner as the frogs. The 
