THE ZOOLOGIST. 



THIRD SERIES. 



Vol. XIV.] AUGUST, 1890. [No. J 64. 



AN OBSERVATION UPON THE TOXIC PROPERTIES OF 



THE AMPHIBIAN INTEGUMENT. 



By Professor G. B. Howes, F.L.S. 



My friend Mr. E. B. Poulton, in his new and interesting work 

 entitled ' The Colours of Animals,' while treating of warning 

 colours in Amphibia, writes (p. 165) :— (t It is extremely probable 

 that the well-known European Salamander (Salamandra maculosa) 

 possesses some unpleasant attribute. I do not think, however, 

 that there is any direct evidence for this." Having recently 

 made an observation which bears upon the question, I submit 

 it for what it may be worth ; and I am the more encouraged to 

 do so, as it involves the older topic of the poisonous property of 

 the Anuran integument, and that as concerning the rare Xenopus 

 (Dactylethra) Icevis. The animal in question (a young female of 

 30 millim. from snout to vent) was generously given me by the 

 Zoological Society of London in February last ; and since that 

 date it has been living in a fern-case, in amicable relationship 

 with a Bombinator, a dozen Salamanders, and a Slow- worm. 

 The Anura have been regularly fed on " blood- worms," the 

 Urodeles on Lumbricidce. My Xenopus, as is its wont, but very 

 rarely leaves the water, and, during the five months which it has 

 passed in my possession, the occasional visit of one or more 

 Salamanders to the glass dish in which it lives has been a matter 

 of little or no consequence. Upon one occasion I had the 

 pleasure of seeing the Slow-worm drink of the water while it 



ZOOLOGIST. — AUGUST, 1890. Y 



