Gigantic Salamandek.- 



-REPTILES.- 



-CoNGO Snake. 



99 



OuDER II.— FALSE LIZARDS (Pseudosaukia). 



This second order of Amphibians is distincjuislicd from 

 the preceding (ihe Datrachia) by the animals belong- 

 ing to it not undergoing any metamorphosis or change 

 during tlie whole period of their lives. Their body is 

 elongate, lizard-like (hence their name), and furnished 

 with a tail. Their gills are rudimentary, internal ; 

 and they have an orifice or gill apertiu'e on each side 

 of the neck, which remains open during all their exist- 

 ence. They breathe by means of vesicular lungs. They 

 possess four legs, but in some of the species these are 

 nearly rudimentary. They have teeth both in the 

 jaws and on the palate. The number of species con- 

 tained in this order of Amphibia is very small, only 

 live or six having been described. They may, how- 

 ever, be divided into two separate families ; the one 

 having tolerably well-developed legs, and the palatine 

 teeth disposed in a transverse arched series, Proto- 

 NOPSID-E ; the other having weak, slender, almost 

 rudimentary legs, and the palatine teeth disposed in 

 two longitudinal diverging series, Ampiiiumid^. 



Of the first family, the Protonopsid.e, one of the 

 most singular species, is one which was discovered by 

 the celebrated naturalist Von Siebokl in Japan. This 

 animal has received the name of its discoverer, and is 

 now known to naturalists as the Slebohlia maxima. 



THE GIGANTIC SALAMANDER [Sicholdia maxima) 

 has a large trigono-ovate head, thicklj' covered with 

 glands ; a depressed body, with tranverse folds ; and a 

 long, thick, cutaneous appendage along each side. 

 The hinder feet have a crustaceous appendage, and 

 the toes, which are four in number in anterior and 

 five in posterior feet, are free, small, and provided 

 with a depressed, lateral, cutaneous lobe. The tail is 

 round at the base, but very much depressed in the 

 middle and behind. The eyes are very small, and 

 scarcely distinguishable ; the nostrils placed near each 

 other on the anterior margin of the upper jaw ; and 

 the tongue is not distinct, but united to the skin of 

 the base of the mouth. The Sicboldia is of consider- 

 able size, and was found in a lake on a basaltic moun- 

 tain in Japan. Siebold brought away a living pair, a 

 male and a female ; but duriiig the passage home the 

 former devoured his companion, though he himself 

 survived the long voyage, and lived for some time at 

 Leyden. A live specimen of this curious animal (the 

 Sieboldia) is now in the Zoological Gardens. 



Another large species is a native of the fresh waters 

 of North America — 



THE HELL-BENDER, MUD-DEVIL, GROUND PUPPY, 

 or Young Alligatok of the Anglo-Americans 

 {Protomjpsis horrida) — figured in Plate 3, fig. 1 — 

 is fifteen inches in length, and is of a pale slate colour, 

 mottled with dusky. The head is large, flat, and 

 broad, and the mouth wide, and covered with thick, 

 fleshy lips. It has a stout, thick, subcyliudrical body, 

 and a large, laterally compressed tail. The neck is 

 contracted, and there is a single spiracle or branchial 

 slit on each side. It has a thin, very indistinct tongue, 



very small nostrils placed close together, and minute 

 black eyes. The legs are short and thick, and broadly 

 fringed on the outer edge. The toes, which are four 

 in number on anterior, and five on posterior feet, are 

 short, webbed, and without claws. The Hell-bender 

 is found in the Alleghany river and its tributaries, and 

 no doubt inhabits also many of the branches of the 

 Ohio and Slississippi rivers. It lives entirely in the 

 water, and is very voracious. It feeds on fish, worms, 

 and moUusca, and indeed nothing that it can devour is 

 spared by it. The fishermen dread it very much, and 

 believe it to be poisonous. Specimens have been 

 found two feet in length. 



The second family, AsiPiiiUMlDiE, contains only 

 two species. One of these is known by the name of 

 the Congo Snake. 



THE CONGO SNAKE {Ampldinna mcfras)— fig. 28— 

 is a native of North America, being found in South 

 Carolina, in the Floridas, Alabama, Mississippi, and, 

 it is said, abundantly in Louisiana. It is about thirty 

 inches long, and is of a deep, bluish-black on upper 

 surface, tinged with violet, and of a dark purple hue 

 beneath. The body is in shape like that of an eel ; 



The Congo Snake (Amiihiuma means). 



the neck contracted, with a transverse fold at the 

 tliroat, and a single branchial slit on each side ; and 

 the tail is very long, round near the base, and com- 

 pressed laterally towaids the tip. The head is very 

 large and oblong ; the mouth large, with thick lips ; 

 the tongue broad, oblong, flat, attached posteriorly ; 

 the nostrils small, situate at tlie very margin of tlio 

 upper lip, and placed close tngetlier ; and the eyes are 

 very small, and covered with a production of the skin. 

 The extremities are but imperfectly developed, being 

 short, slender, jointlcss, and of little use for progressive 

 motion. The feet are in each extremity terminated 



