MANUAL OF NATURAL HISTORY. 73 



that many an ancient crone, who, in a blazing tar- 

 barrel, expiated at once her own ugliness and her 

 supposed dealings with the evil one, was held to 

 have her familiar spirit near her, encased in the out- 

 ward form of some hateful reptile. 



But to the more enlightened understanding of the 

 present age, Amphibians, though constituting by far 

 the smallest class of vertebrate animals, have been 

 shewn to present a vast number of singular and 

 curious facts in their history, and in their habits, so 

 as to yield to none in the interest they excite in the 

 mind of the Zoologist. The most remarkable point 

 connected with their development is, that they all 

 undergo transformation after birth, being in early 

 life entirely aquatic, respiring by gills, and at that 

 period in most respects closely allied to fishes ; 

 while, after a time, they throw aside their ichthyic 

 characters, their gills disappear, and they come out 

 as inhabitants of dry land, breathing like all other 

 terrestrians, by means of lungs. A few, however, 

 seem to be so attached to early habits as never to be 

 able to dispense with their gills, which, therefore, 

 they retain for life, at times more for ornament 

 than for use. One individual, is named "Proteus/' 

 after his celebrated namesake of antiquity, whom he 

 tries to imitate in a small way, having the external 

 appearance of an Amphibian, but the manners of a 

 Fish. In the young, or tadpole state, they generally 

 have a long tail, which in many, on arriving at 

 maturity, becomes atrophied and finally disappears. 

 Altogether they constitute a most interesting transi- 



