3°° 
NEWTS AND SALAMANDERS. 
partially free. There are five hind-toes, and the tail is more or less compressed. 
Represented by a number of North American species, one of which ranges as far 
south as Mexico, the genus has also one Asiatic member, inhabiting the mountains 
of Siam, probably at a great elevation. 
The majority of axolotls pass from the tadpole to the salamander stage in 
the ordinary way, but this is not the case with the Mexican race of the Mexican 
axolotl (A. tigrinum), which likewise extends over a large area in the United 
States. The adult form is shown in our second illustration; and in this condition 
the head is large and depressed, and has a broad and blunt muzzle, the limbs 
being stout, with short toes, and the rather long tail distinctly compressed, and 
LARVAL STAGE OF MEXICAN AXOLOTL (§ nat. size). 
keeled above and below near the extremity. The shining skin is finely granulated, 
and the general colour brown or blackish, with more or less numerous yellow 
spots, which may be arranged in transverse bands. In the United States, we 
believe, the transformation from the larva to the adult goes on in the ordinary 
manner; but the case is very different in Mexico. The city bearing that name 
is, as our readers are doubtless aware, surrounded by an extensive lake; while 
the country itself is characterised by its extreme dryness. In this lake dwell the 
creatures represented in our first illustration, which are known to the natives 
by the name of axolotl. It will be seen from this figure that they resemble 
the tadpole stage of ordinary salamanders and newts in having large branching 
gills, and a deep rudder-like tail; and the natural conclusion would be that 
