206 ZOOLOGY, 
very slender body, with a long tail, which is sometimes much longer than 
the body. The species are very active in their movements, and ‘inhabit 
the edges of streams under flat stones. They are distributed throughout 
North America, although none as yet are known from the regions west of 
the Rocky Mountains, where, however, it is represented by an allied genus, 
Batrachoseps, with but four toes on the hind feet. 
It is among the European salamanders that the genera Salamandra and 
Triton are still retained. ‘There are others, however, in considerable 
number. To the former genus belongs S. maculata (pl. 89, fig. 1), the 
famed salamander of antiquity, respecting which many fables as to a 
highly venomous bite and a power of resisting the action of fire were 
long current. The animal is ovo-viviparous, the eggs being retained in 
the oviduct of the female until ready for hatching, upon which they are 
conveyed to the water, and the branchiated young there deposited. The 
changes experienced by the young, as well as the general appearance and 
habits of the adult, present a not uninteresting similitude to what is 
observed in the case of Ambystoma punctata already referred to. A 
remarkable fact, which has been observed in a second species, S. atra, will 
recall a similar provision in the case of the ostrich. The female retains 
the eggs in the oviduct until they are hatched; the number of young 
produced amounts, however, to but two, which are born without branchie, — 
and consequently without a necessity of being deposited in water. The 
actual number of eggs laid amounts, however, to about twenty, and the 
eighteen are destined merely to serve as food for the young larve after 
birth. It has already been observed that the restricted genus Salamandra 
differs from the American genera in the possession of parotid glands. ‘The 
vomerine teeth form an angular row, the body is thick and clumsy, and the 
toes are four in front and five behind. A genus, Salamandrina, differs 
from other European genera in the possession of but four toes on the hind 
feet. The genus Triton, differing essentially from the American genus 
Notophthalmus, yet bears a striking external resemblance to it; and the 
habits, as detailed by Rusconi and others, are also very similar. It was 
upon species of Triton that the cruel experiments of Bonnet, Dumeril, and 
others, were performed as to the reproduction of lost parts. Toes were 
cut off, and indeed entire limbs and the tail were removed many times in 
succession, and an individual lived for many months which had had the lungs 
extirpated and the entire face cut away, leaving nothing but the cranium. 
Conspicuous species are to be found in 7’ teniatum (pl. 89, fig. 2) and T. 
cristatum (pl. 81, fig. 32). The remaining genera, the names alone of 
which we can mention, are, Geotriton, Euproctus, Bradybates, Pleurodeles, 
Glossoliga, and Megapterna. 
The Japanese species belong chiefly to the genus Onychodactylus, 
known especially for the claws developed during the breeding season ; 
Cynops, with a supra-orbitar foramen, and a skull almost precisely like 
that of Notophthalmus, but with parotid glands; and Hynobius. The 
species are but five in number. 
The last form to be mentioned is the genus Anaides from the Island ef 
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