66 Dr. Mitchill on the Proteus of Lake Erie. 



numerous; of which few have been described. They have 

 been distributed under several heads; such as, 1. those 

 having the toes of the hind feet intirely free and without 

 membranes; 2. those having the toes furnished with sepa- 

 rate or lobed membranes ; and 3. such as liave all the toes 

 united by a single membrane, or are palmated." 



The very animal before me, which has prompted this in- 

 (juiry, has been called a Salamander. The late Professor 

 B. S. Barton, mentions him distinctly, in the second volume 

 p. 196 of his Medical and Physical Journal, published about 

 the year 1806, as a Salamander. As the species of this 

 genus are small reptiles, seldom exceeding five or six inch- 

 es in length, he proposed to call him Salamandra maxima, 

 or S. gigantea, the huge or gigantic S. ; or from the dread 

 entertained of him by the fishermen, S. Horrida. Cuvier 

 has placed him accordingly, on this authority, among the 

 Tritons or Water Salamanders, in his Regne Animal, vol. 

 2, p. 101. 



The character given of Salamanders by this eminent 

 naturalist, is " that they have a lengthened body, four feet 

 and along tai', giving them the general form of lizards; on 

 which account Linnaeus left them in that genus. But they 

 have all the characters of Batracians. Their head is flat- 

 tened. The ear entirely hidden under the flesh without a 

 tympanum, but merely a small cartilaginous scale over the 

 fenestra ovalis ; both jaws armed with numerous and 

 small teeth ; two longitudinal rows of similar teeth around 

 the palate ; tongue like that of frogs ; no third eye-lid ; 

 skeleton with very small rudiments of ribs, and without a 

 sternum; pelvis suspended from the spine by ligaments ; 

 four toes before and five behind. In the full-grown state 

 they breathe like frogs and tortoises. Their tadpoles or 

 larvae breathe first by gills in the form of bunches to the 

 number of three on each side of the neck, which are after- 

 wards obliterated. They are suspended from the cartila- 

 ginous arches, on which in the adult the parts of the os hyoi- 

 des rest. A membranous operculum covers these openings ; 

 but the bunches are never covered with a tunic, and float in 

 the wateT. The fore feet are evolved sooner than the hind&r. 

 The toes grow on the one and on the other in succession." 



The animal under consideration being furnished with 

 persistent gills, and having a perfect growth, cannot be a 

 salamander. 



