Gigahtic Salamandek. REPTILES. Congo Snake. 99 
Order II. — FALSE LIZAEDS (Pseudosauria). 
This second order of Amphibians is distinguished from 
the preceding (the Batmchia) by the animals belong- 
ing to it not undergoing any metamorphosis or change 
during the whole period of their lives. Their body is 
elongate, lizard-like (hence their name), and furnished 
with a tail. Their gills are rudimentary, internal ; 
and they have an orifice or gill aperture on each side 
of the neck, which remains open during all their exist- 
ence. They breathe by means of vesicular lungs. They 
possess four legs, but in some of the species these are 
nearly rudimentary. They have teeth both in the 
jaws and on the palate. The number of species con- 
tained in this order of Amphibia is very small, only 
five or six having been described. They may, how- 
ever, be divided into two separate families ; the one 
having tolerably well-developed legs, and the palatine 
teeth disposed in a transverse arched series, Proto- 
NOPSiD.<E ; the other having weak, slender, almost 
rudimentary legs, and the palatine teeth disposed in 
two longitudinal diverging series, Amphiumid^. 
Of the first family, the Peotonopsid.®, one of the 
most singular species, is one which was discovered by 
the celebrated naturalist Von Siebold in Japan. This 
animal has received the name of its discoverer, and is 
now known to naturalists as the Sieboldia maxima. 
THE GIGANTIC SALAMANDER {Sieboldia maxima) 
has a large trigono-ovate head, thickly covered with 
glands ; a depressed body, with tranverse folds ; and a 
long, thick, cutaneous appendage along each side. 
The hinder feet have a crustaceous -appendage, and 
the toes, which are four in number in anterior and 
five in posterior feet, are free, small, and provided 
with a depressed, lateral, cutaneous lobe. The tail is 
round at the base, but very much depressed in the 
middle and behind. The eyes are very small, and 
scarcely distinguishable ; the nostrils placed near each 
other on the anterior margin of the upper jaw ; and 
the tongue is not distinct, but united to the skin of 
the base of the mouth. The Sieboldia is of consider- 
able size, and was found in a lake on a basaltic moun- 
tain in Japan. Siebold brought away a living pair, a 
male and a female ; but during the passage home the 
former devoured his companion, though he himself 
survived the long voyage, and lived for some time at 
Leyden. A live specimen of this curious animal (the 
Sieboldia) is now in the Zoological Gardens. 
Another large species is a native of the fresh waters 
of North America — 
TEE HELL-BENDEE, MHD-DEVIl, GROUND PUPPY, 
or Youkg Alligator of the Anglo-Americans 
{Protonopsis horrida) — figured in Plate 3, fig. 1 — 
is fifteen inches in length, and is of a pale slate colour, 
mottled with dusky. The head is large, flat, and 
broad, and the mouth wide, and covered with thick, 
fleshy lips. It has a stout, thick, subcylindrical body, 
and a large, laterally compressed tail. The neck is 
contracted, and there is a single spiracle or branchial 
slit on each side. It has a thin, very indistinct tongue. 
very small nostrils placed close together, and minute 
black eyes. The legs are short and thick, and broadly 
fringed on the outer edge. The toes, whicli are four 
in number on anterior, and five on posterior feet, are 
short, webbed, and without claws. The Hell-bender 
is found in the Alleghany river and its tributaries, and 
no doubt inhabits also many of the branches of the 
Ohio and Mississippi rivers. It lives entirely in the 
water, and is very voracious. It feeds on fish, worms, 
and mollusca, and indeed nothing that it can devour is 
spared by it. The fishermen dread it very much, and 
believe it to be poisonous. Specimens have been 
found two feet in length. 
The second family, Amphigmid^, contains only 
two species. One of these is known by the name of 
the Congo Snake. 
THE CONGO SNAKE {Amphiuma means) — fig. 28 — 
is a native of North America, being found in South 
Carolina, in the Floridas, Alabama, Mississippi, and, 
it is said, abundantly in Louisiana. It is about thirty 
inches long, and is of a deep, bluish-black on upper 
surface, tinged with violet, and of a dark purple hue 
beneath. The body is in shape like that of an eel ; 
Fig. 28. 
The Congo Snake (Amphiuma means). 
the neck contracted, with a transverse fold at the 
throat, and a single branchial slit on each side; and 
the tail is very long, round near the base, and com- 
pressed laterally towards the tip. The head is very 
large and oblong ; the mouth large, with thick lips ; 
the tongue broad, oblong, flat, attached posteriorly; 
the nostrils small, situate at the very margin of the 
upper lip, and placed close together ; and the eyes are 
very small, and covered with a production of the skin. 
The extremities are but imperfectly developed, being 
short, slender, jointless, and of little use for progressive 
motion. The feet are in each extremity terminated 
