SALAMANDER. FROG, AND OTHER AMPHIBIANS. 176 



The Blind Snahe. — Its body is snake-like, being long 

 and cylindrical. We have seen that in the siren the two 

 hind legs are wanting, and that in those which walk on all- 

 fours the number of toes may vary. In the blind-snake 



Fia. 181.— Head and tail end of blind-snake {Ccecilid). 



there are no legs at all, and thus we have amphibians with- 

 out legs, just as snakes are reptiles without legs. Though 

 this creature is blind and limbless, and would appear to 

 have a hard time in getting the 

 means of living, yet by adopting 

 the mode of life of an earth- 

 worm it thrives, and affords an- 

 other of the instances, of which 

 there are so many, of the har- 

 mony in nature between animals 

 and their surroundings. The 

 skin is smooth externally, vidth 

 minute scales embedded in it. 

 The eyes are minute, covered by 

 the skin (Fig. 181). The spe- 

 cies inhabit the tropics of South 

 and Central America, Java, Cey- 

 lon, and live like earthworms in 

 holes in the damp earth, feeding 

 on insect larva. They are large, 

 growing several feet in length. 

 Ocecilia compressicduda of Suri- 

 nam is viviparous, the young being born in water and pos- 

 sessing external leaf-shaped gills. 



Toads and frogs. — These are the tailless Batrachians. 

 Frogs either live in or by the edge of pools and brooks, and 

 when attacked on land they can by vigorous leaps escape to 

 a place of safety. Unlike other amphibians, they are 



Fig. 182.— Young of Ccecilia, with 

 the gills, and head of the same af- 

 ter tae gills have been absorbed. 



