28 REPTILES AND BIRDS. 



venomous matter was really contained in follicles in the true skin, and 

 chiefly about the head and shoulders, although also distributed over 

 other portions of the body. He also pronounced it to De extremely 

 acrid, but innocuous when introduced into the circulation. A 

 chicken inoculated with it was unaffected ; thus, Dr. Davy conjectures 

 that this acrid liquid is the animal's defence against carnivorous 

 mammalia. A dog, when urged to attack one, will drop it from its 

 mouth in a manner which leaves no doubt that it has tasted the 

 secretion. 



In opposition to these opinions a story is told in France of a 

 lad who had thrust his slightly-wounded hand into a hole, intending 

 to seize a lizard which he had seen enter. In place of the lizard he 

 brought out a large toad. While holding the animal, it discharged a 

 milky yellowish-white fluid, which got introduced into the sore, and 

 this poison occasioned his death ; but it is not stated whether the 

 boy was previously healthy or not. 



Warm and temperate regions with abundant moisture are the 

 localities favourable to all the Batrachians. Extreme cold, as well as 

 dry heat, and all sudden changes, are alike unfavourable to them. In 

 temperate climates, where the winters are severe, they bury them- 

 selves under the earth or in the mud at the bottom of pools and 

 ponds, and there pass the season without air or food, till returning 

 spring calls them forth. 



The species of this family are very numerous. MM. Dumeril 

 and Bibron state that the Frogs (jRana) number fifty-one species, 

 the tree frogs (Ify/a) sixty-four, and the Toads (Biifo) thirty-five. 

 They are found in all parts of the world, the least variety of the race 

 being found in Europe, and the largest in America. Oceania is well 

 supplied with the Tree Frogs. There are several curious forms in 

 Australia, and one species only is known to inhabit New Zealand. 

 The enormous fossil Labyri?ithodon, of a remote geological era, is 

 believed to have been nearly related to these comparatively very 

 diminutive Batrachians.* 



Tailed Batrachians, 



Sometimes called Urodeles, from ovpd, "tail," 5y\os, "manifest." The 

 constant external character which distinguishes these Amphibians in 



* In Dr. Gunther's Catalogue of the Batrachia salientia (as Dr. Gray terms 

 them) in the collection of the British Museum, published in 1858, and which 

 includes all the ascertained species up to the time of publication, as many as 282 

 are enumerated, which are arranged under twenty-five groups holding the rank of 

 families. — Ed. 



