86 



NATURAL HISTORY 



coralline Eiiis ) asserts^ in a letter to the 

 Royal Society, dated June the 5th, 1766, in 

 his account of the 7nud inguana, an amphi- 

 bious bipes from South Carolina, that the 

 water-eft, or newt, is only the larva of the 

 land-eft, as tadpoles are of frogs. Lest I 

 should be suspected to misunderstand his 

 meaning, I shall give it in his own words. 

 Speaking of the opercula or coverings to 

 the gills of the mud inguana, he proceeds to 

 say that The form of these pennated co- 



verings approaches very near to what.I 

 " have some time ago observed in the larva 



or a qua lie state of our English lacerta, 



known by the name of eft, or newt ; 



which serve them for coverings to their 

 *^ gills, and for fins to swim with while in 



this state ; and which they lose, as well 

 " as the fins of their tails, when they 



change their state and become land ani^ 

 " mals, as I have observed, by keeping 



them alive for some time myself." 



Linnmis, in his Systema NaturcB, hints 

 at what Mr. Ellis advances more than 

 once. 



