SALAMANDEES. 31 



Thej' are found in all parts of tlie world, the smallest portion 

 being found in Enrojse, and the largest in Ameiica. Oceania is 

 chiefly sup^jlied with the Tree Frogs. There are several curious 

 forms in Australia, and one species only is known to inhabit New 

 Zealand. The enormous fossil Labyrinthodon, of a remote geo- 

 logical era, is believed to have been nearly related to these 

 comparatively very diminutive Batrachians.* 



Tait.ed Eatkachians, 



Sometimes called TJrodeles, from ovpa, " tail," Si^Aos, " manifest." 

 The constant external character which distinguishes these Amphi- 

 bians in a general manner is the presence of a tail during the 

 whole stage of their existence. Nevertheless thej' are subject to 

 the metamorphoses to which all the Amphibians submit. " The 

 di^dsion, therefore, of reptiles," says Professor Rj^mer Jones, "into 

 such as undergo metamorphoses and such as do not, is by no means 

 philosophical although convenient to the zoologist, for all reptiles 

 undergo a metamor2:)hosis although not to the same extent. In 

 the one the change from the aquatic to the air-breathing animal is 

 never fully accomplished ; in the tailed Amphibian the change 

 is accomplished after the embryo has escaped from the ovum." 



Salamanders have had the honour of appearing jDrominently in 

 fabulous narrative. The Greeks believed that they could live in 

 fire, and this error obtained credence so long, that even now it has 

 not been entirely dissipated. Manj^ people are simple enough to 

 believe from the Greek tradition that these innocent animals are 

 incombustible. The love of the marvellous, fostered and excited 

 by ignorant appeals to superstition, has gone even further than 

 this ; it has been asserted that the most violent fire becomes extin- 

 guished when a Salamander is thrown into it. In the middle ases 

 this notion was held by most people, and it woidd have been dan- 

 gerous to gainsay it. Salamanders were necessary animals in the 

 conjurations of sorcerers and witches; accordingly painters among 

 their sj'mbolical emblems represented Salamanders as capable of 



* In Dr. Giinther's Catalogue of the Batrachia Salientia (as Dr. Gray terms them) 

 in the collection of the British Musemn, puhlished in 1858, and -which includes all the 

 ascertained species up to the time of publication, as many as 282 are enumerated, 

 ■which are arranged under twenty-five groups holding the rank of families. — Ed. 



