BATRACHIA. 85 



led, the male places them on the back of the female and there 

 fecundates themj the latter then proceeds to the water, the skin 

 pf her back swells and forms cells in which the eggs are hatched. 

 The life of the tadpole is passed in the water, and it does not 

 leave it until it has lost its tail, and acquired feet. It is at this 

 * time also that the mother returns to land. 



Spix figures one of them pi. xxii, at least a closely allied spe- 

 cies, — Pipa curururu, Spix, — from the bottom of the Brazilian 

 lakes, and asserts that the female does not carry her youngj 

 he does not inform us, however, that he observed her during 

 the whole year.(l) 



Salamandra, Brogn. 



Salamanders have an elongated body, four feet and a long tail, 

 which gives them the general form of Lizards, with which Linnaeus 

 placed them: but they have all the characters of Batrachians. 



Their head is flattened; the ear completely hidden under the mus- 

 cles, without any tympanum, having nothing but a small cartilagi- 

 nous plate on the fenestra ovalis; the two jaws furnished with nume- 

 rous and small teethj two longitudinal rows of similar teeth in the 

 palate, but attached to bones analogous to. the vomer; the tongue as 

 in the Frogs; no third eye-lid; a skeleton with very small rudiments 

 of ribs, but without a bony sternum; a pelvis suspended from the 

 spine by ligaments; four toes before, and almost always five behind. 

 In their adult state, respiration is performed as in Frogs and Tor- 

 toises. Their tadpoles at first breathe by means of branchiae .re- 

 sembling tufts, three on each side of the neck, which are subse- 

 quently obliterated; they are suspended to cartilaginous arches, ves- 

 tiges of which remain in the hyoid bone of the adult. A membra- 

 nous operculum covers these openings, but the tufts are never en- 

 closed by a tunic, and always float externally. The fore feet are 

 developed before the hind ones; the toes appear successively in the 

 first and the last. 



Salamandra, Laur. 



The terrestrial Salamanders in a perfect state have a round tail, 

 and inhabit the water only during their tadpole condition, which is 

 but a short period, or when the female is ready to bring forth. The 

 eggs are hatched in the oviduct. 



(1) There is a true Pipa in the Cabinet du Roi, from Rio Negro, which is entirely 

 smooth, and with an unusually narrow head. It will be my Pipal gms, very dif- 

 ferent from that of Merrem, which is a Dactyldhra. 



