CHAPTEE III. 



SONGLESS BATRACHIANS. 

 The Salamanders. 



Aftee leaving the clamorous frogs, one experi- 

 ences a sense of relief in coming to the voiceless 

 salamander — ^lizard as he is wrongly called. Now 

 the lizard and the salamander belong to two separate 

 families of widely different character. The hzard is 

 covered with imbricated or granular scales ; he is the 

 small relation of the alligator. The salamander is 

 smooth-skinned ; he is the elongated relation of the 

 frog. The lizard is a saui-lan reptile, the principal 

 characteristics of which are the scales, the claws to 

 the toes, the undilated mouth, the toothed jaws, and 

 the eggs with a hard shell or skin, the young from 

 which do mit undergo a metamorphosis. The sala- 

 mander is a hatrachian, with a skin as smooth as a 

 catfish, toes without claws, dilated mouth, and young 

 which are metamorphosed. 



The salamander was credited with the most re- 

 markable attributes in days of old. His bite was 

 30 



