404 CLASS REPTILIA. 



triangular box, within which are two mobile bones, 

 which can close the entrance of the bronchiae.* 



The species anciently known, {liana Pipa^ L.) 

 Seb. I. Ixxvii, Daud. xxxi. xxxii., inhabits Cayenne 

 and Surinam, in the obscure places of houses, and 

 has the back grained, with three longitudinal ranges 

 of thicker grains. When the eggs are laid, the 

 male places them on the back of the female and 

 fecundates them with his milt, then the female 

 betakes herself to the water, the skin of her back 

 swells and forms cells in which the eggs exclude 

 the young. There the little ones pass their tad- 

 pole state, and they do not emerge until they have 

 lost their tail, and their feet are developed. Then 

 the mother returns to land. 



M. Spix represents one of a species more or less 

 approximating to this, (Pipa CurururUt Spix,) from 

 the lakes of Brazil, and assures us that the female 

 does not carry her young."-!" 



The Salamanders, Salamandra, Brongn., 



Have the body elongated, four feet, and a long tail, 

 which gives them the general form of the lizards j 

 accordingly Linnaeus has left them in that genus, 

 but they have all the characters of the batracians. 



* This is what M. Schneider has described under the name of Cista 

 SternaUs. 



f In the cabinet of the King, is a true pipa of the Rio Negro, entirely 

 smooth, with the head more narrow than usual. This is my Pipa Lcevis, 

 very different from that of Merrem, which is a Dactylethra. 



