382 REPTILIA. 



and are mostly about standing water. They are viviparous ex ovo, 

 having from fifteen to twenty young at one time ; they are placed in 

 the lower part of the oviduct, which part becomes enlarged as the 

 young increase in size ; but the upper portion seems to continue of the 

 same size ; therefore the lower part should be called the uterus, and 

 the upper the oviduct ; the latter probably furnishes something similar 

 to the white in the egg \ They bring forth their young in the water, 

 in which place we most commonly find them. The young are com- 

 pletely formed in the oviduct, and part of the ovum, probably that 

 part which came from the mother or ovarium, is taken before birth into 

 the belly, as in many other oviparous animals 2 ; when they come forth 

 they are surrounded by the transparent bag or membrane [chorion] 

 which covered them in the oviduct; but they soon get out of it and 

 swim in the water. If they are not born in the water they soon die. 

 There is a fine floating fringe at that part of the head wheie the gills 

 of fish are placed, which are the gills of this animal 3 . How long they 

 are entirely aquatic, I don't yet know. The old would seem at first to 

 be bzards 4 ; but they are very different ; for they are amphibious, vivi- 

 parous, and perhaps sleep in dry weather, and not in wet. 



The stomach is in the direction, principally, of the oesophagus ; but 

 its lower end bends up and to the right, to form the intestines. The 

 intestine immediately makes convolutions ; there is nothing that can be 

 called ' duodenum.' The small ones are short, and terminate a little 

 lower down in the belly, in the rectum, which seems little more than a 

 quick enlargement of the intestine, passing straight on, and being more 

 immediately attached to the back. 



The liver is pietty large, and consists of but one lobe, with a fissure 

 in its lower edge 5 . The gall-bladder of the Gibraltar one was ex- 

 tremely small. 



The oviducts are long canals passing from above the liver where they 

 begin, winding round the liver towards the back, down which they pass 

 on each side. They are convoluted, or make turns upon themselves ; 

 and, in the unimpregnated state, there is but little difference through 

 the whole tract of the canal, only it becomes rather larger 6 . 



On the Pnettmobranchiata [Batrachia perennibranchiata]. 

 Different species of a new genus of animals have come of late years 



i [Hunt, Preps. Phys. Series, Nos. 3296—3298.] 2 [lb. No. 3299.] 



3 [lb. Nos. 3296, 3300.] 



4 [They were so regarded by Linnaeus, who named them ' Lacerta Salamandra.'] 

 s [Hunt. Prep. Phys. Series. No. 799.] 



6 [lb. No. 2701. The male organs are shown in Nos. 2407 and 2408.] 



