482 ZOOLOGY. 
The body is snake-like, being long and cylindrical; there 
are no feet and no tail, the vent being situated at the blunt 
end of the body. The skin is smooth externally, with scales 
embedded in it, but with scale-like transverse wrinkles.* The 
eyes are minute, covered by the skin. The species inhabit 
the tropics of South America, Java, Ceylon, and live like 
earthworms in holes in the damp earth, feeding on insect 
larve. They are large, growing several feet in length. 
Cecilia lumbricoides Daudin inhabits South America. Ce- 
cilia compressicauda of Surinam is viviparous, the young 
being born in water and possessing external gills which are 
leaf-shaped sacs resting against the sides of the body ; when 
the animal leaves the water they are absorbed, leaving a sear. 
{Peters.) Siphonops Mexicana Dumeril and Bibron, is a 
Mexican form. 5 
Order 5. Stegocephala.—Here belong an order of extinct 
Batrachians, with three suborders, Labyrinthodontia, Gano- 
cephala, and Microsauria (Cope). In these forms the skulls 
were either somewhat like those of the frogs, or the crania 
were roofed in by solid flat bones, similar to those of ganoid 
fishes. The vertebrae were biconcave. The limbs of the 
Labyrinthodonts were like those of the tailed Batrachians, of 
small size and weak, compared with the great size of the 
body. Von Meyer states that Archegosaurus possessed 
branchial arches when young, and that probably other Laby- 
rinthodonts resembled it in this respect. -It had paddles 
instead of feet, the head had an armor of plates, and the 
‘body was covered with overlapping ganoid scales. It had 
teeth like those of ganoid fishes; it had a notochord, the 
bodies of the vertebre being neither bony nor cartilaginous. 
Owen regards it as combining the characters of the perenni- 
branchiate Amphibians and the Ganoid fishes. It was a 
little over a metre (34 feet) in length. It is a representative 
of the suborder Ganocephaila. 
While the older text-books in the restorations of Lady- 
rinthodon represented it as like a toad, with large legs and 
tailess, it is now known that some of the gigantic prede- 
cessors of the salamanders and tritons had long tails, while 
others had long, cylindrical, snake-like bodies. Unlike exist- 
* The “scales” are flaps, not like the scales of fishes or reptiles. 
