THE ABRAXCHIAN AMPHIBIA. Q3 



This liquor is stated to emit a powerful odour and to 

 be even poisonous to small animals. There are but few 

 of these reptiles in Europe^ but many have of late 

 years been discovered in America^ and have been ac- 

 curately described by the naturalists of the New World. 

 They seem to diflPer but little from those of Europe^ 

 except in wanting the glands on the occiput. The 

 aquatic salamanders (/^r. 24.) form a natural division from 

 the last, since they pass almost their entire life in the 

 water, and consequently their tail, which in that element 

 is their chief organ of locomotion, is always vertically 

 compressed or oar-shaped. The cruel experiments of 

 the Italian naturalists on the extraordinary power of 

 reproduction possessed by these harmless little creatures 

 need not be detailed. The eggs are laid in the water, 

 in the same manner as those of frogs, and the young 

 come forth in about a fortnight. In the spring, which 

 with all animals is the season of love, the male sala- 

 manders have crests and other little ornamental ap- 

 pendages, no doubt to attract the female, since they are 

 not retained beyond that period. Several of these spe- 

 cies, but all of a small size, inhabit the fresh and 

 stagnant waters of Europe, and some are found in this 

 country. The toes in this group vary both as to their 

 number and connection, from which circumstance the 

 different sub-genera have been formed. Many of this 

 division inhabit North Am.erica, while M. Cuvier is of 

 opinion that the famous fossil skeleton of CEningen, 

 supposed by Scheuzer to have belonged to the human 

 species, is nothing more than the remains of a gigantic 

 salamander measuring more than three feet in length. 



(98.) Immediately after the salamanders, M. Cuvier 

 placed two remarkable genera of amphibians, agreeing 

 with the former in possessing (as he conceived) gills only 

 in an immature state. But sulDsequent discoveries sanc- 

 tion the idea that they do not undergo metamorphosis, 

 but respire all their life by lungs only. Mr. Bell has 

 therefore formed them into a separate order, which he 

 has named Abkanchia. The genera alluded to are 



