BATRACHIANS. (>5 



C. tentaculata, L. ; Amen. Acad. I, xvii, 1. One hundred and 

 thirty and odd plicae, every other pair of which, particularly near the 

 tail, does not completely encircle the body. It is black, marbled 

 with white on the belly*. 



Others have a much greater number of plicae, or rather of close, trans- 

 verse stria?. 



Ccec. glutinosa, L.; Seb. XXV, 2; and Mus. Ad. Fred. IV, 1, 



is of that number, having three hundred and fifty plicae, which unite 

 beneath at an acute angle. It is blackish, with a longitudinal yel- 

 lowish band along each flank. Found in Ceylon t. 



Finally, there are some in which the plica? are almost effaced ; 

 their body is very long and slender, and their muzzle salient. One 

 species is completely blind, the Ccec. lumbricoides, Daud. VIII, 

 xcii, 2; it is blackish ; two feet in length, and about the thickness 

 of a goose-quill J. 



ORDER IV. 



THE BATRACHIANS §. 



The Batrachians have a heart composed of but one auricle and one 

 ventricle. They all have two equal lungs, to which are joined in the ear- 

 liest age branchiae, that have some affinity with those of Fishes, and which 

 have cartilaginous arches on each side of the neck attached to the hyoid 

 bone. Most of them lose these branchiae, and the apparatus which sup- 

 ports them, when they attain their perfect state. Three genera only, 

 Siren, Proteus, and Menobranchus, retain them for life. 



As long as these branchiae remain, the aorta is divided at its origin into 

 as many branches on each side as there are branchiae. The branchial 

 blood is brought back by veins which unite near the back in one arterial 

 trunk, as in Fishes. It is from this trunk, or immediately from the veins 



* This Caecilia is not more tentaculated than others of its subdivision. Add, 

 C. albirentris, Daud. VII, xcii, 1: if it is not the same as the tentaculata; — C. hiter- 

 rupta, Cuv., in which the white lines of the rings do not correspond with each other 

 beneath; — C. rostrata, Cuv., with a more pointed muzzle, and no white edges to the 

 rings. It is hard to say why Spix attributes upwards of two hundred plicas to his 

 annulata; his figure shews but about eighty. 



f It is certainly from Ceylon, although Daudin places its habitat in America; as 

 we have received it from the former country through the politeness of M. Lesche- 

 nault; a closely allied species, it is true, inhabits the latter — Ccec. bivittata, Cuv. 



+ Linnaeus mentions it, Mus. Ad. Fred. V, 2, but confounds it with the tentaculata. 



We have the skeleton of a Caecilia more than six feet long, and having two hun- 

 dred and twenty- five vertebras, but of whose external characters we are ignorant 



§ From the Greek word Batrachos (Frog), animals analogous to Frogs. 



VOL. II. F 



