CLASS IV. BATRACHIA: ORDER 2. TJRODELA. 
413 
THE SURINAM TOAD. 
eggs laid by the female in tlie edge of tlie water, and presses tliem down ; tliey are tlien covered 
by a natural operculum, and there they are hatched, in the same manner as the free larvas of the 
other Batrachians. Notwithstanding the hideous aspect of this species of toad, the people of 
Guiana and Surinam, where it is found, feed upon it. 
ORDER 2. TJRODELA. 
The term Vrodela signifies having a tail, and is descriptive of the animals of this order ; it 
includes two families, the first bearing the general name of Salamandrid^, which are usually 
divided into two groups, the aquatic salamanders, called Tritons, and the terrestrial salamanders 
or True Salamanders ; the other family consists of the Amphiumid^. We can only notice a few 
prominent species, 
THE SALAMATOEID^. 
Genus TRITON : Triton. — This includes several species, which spend a great part of their 
time in the water and generally live on aquatic insects. In the winter, they lie in a torpid 
state, several of them rolled up together like a ball, and occupying some hole in the ground. 
The Common Warty-Newt of 
Europe, T. cristatus — the Grosse 
Wasser- Salamander of Gei'many, 
Sulamandre of the French — is six 
inches long, and is common in 
large ponds and ditches, where it 
feeds voraciously on aquatic insects 
and other small animals, as tadpoles, 
newts, &c. It swims chiefly by its 
tail. The female deposits her eggs 
one by one, on different leaves, in 
the water ; ere long they are hatched, 
and, in their various stages of develop- 
ment, display the forms as repre- 
sented in the annexed engraving. 
After passing through several trans- 
formations, in which they have had 
the appearance and functions of fishes, 
at length, toward the close of autumn, 
they reach their perfection, and arrive at the dignity of reptiles. This species is common in 
Europe. The other species pass through similar metamorphoses. 
DEVELOPMENT OF TOUNG WARTY-NEWTS. 
I 
