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Show 84 REPTILIA. RHINELLUS, Fitzing.-OxYRYNOHus, Spix, Has a muzzle pointed anteriorly.(!) We should approximate to it the 0TILOPHIS, Cuv. Where the muzzle is also angular, and where there is a crest on eac h s1' d e of the head which extends over the paroti. d.. The Crapaud perle, (Ran. margaritifera, Gm.,) Daud. XXXIII, IS Its type. BREVIOEPS, Merr.-ENGYSTOMA, Fitzing., partim. Toads without a visible tympanum or parotid, in which the body is oval, bead and mouth very small, and the feet but slightly palmated:(2) A more essential difference is that which has separated the P1pre , of Laurenti from all the great genus Rana. PxPA, Laur. This subdivision is distinguished by a ho.rizontally flatt~ned body; a broad and triangular head; by the absence of a tongue; by a tym· panum concealed under the skin; by small eyes ~lac~d ~e~r the edge of the upper jaw; by anterior toes, each of wh1ch 1s d1v1ded at the extremity into four small points; and finally by the e.no~mous lar~nx of the male, formed like a triangular osseous box, ms1de of whtch are two movable bones, which can be made to close the entrance to the bronchire.(S) The species formerly known, Rana pipa, L.; ~eb. I,, lxxvii; Daud., xxxi, xxxii, is found at Cayenne and Surmam m dark places about the houses. Its back is granulated, with three longitudinal ranges of larger granules. When the ova are expel- (1} Bufo proboacideua, Spix, XXI, 4;-the neighbouring species figured on ~e same plate, B. aemilineatus, B. granuloaua, B. acutirostria, and those of pl. XIV, naricu.' and naautus, connect this subgenus too closely with the common Toads to be easily retained. .. (2) Engyatoma doraatum, Nob., or Bufo gibboaua, Auct., Seb., II, xxxvu~ No.3, Daud. XXlX, 2;-Eng. marmoratum;-Eng. granoaum, Cuv., new spec1es, one from India, the other from the Cape. The mouth of the Eng. aurinamenae, ~aud., XXXIII, 2, is already larger, as well as in the Bufo globuloaus and albifron8, Spix, XIX. N. n. The Eng. ovalis, Fitz. is a Dactyletltra; his Eng. ventriroaa, Daud. XXX, 2, is a Bombinator. N.B. The Bufo ephippium, Spix, XX, 2, of which Fitzinger makes his genus BnA.cHYCF.PnALus, on account of there being but three toes to all the feet, may be a young specimen badly preserved or incorrectly figured. (3) Described by Schneider under the name of Ciata sternalis. BATRACHIA. 85 , Jed, the male places them on the back Qf th~ female and there fecundates them; the latter then proceeds to the water, the skin of her back swells and forms cells in wbich the eggs are hatched. · ':fhe life of the tadpole is passed in the water, and it does not leave it until it has lost its tail, and acquired feet. It is at this time also that the mQther returns to land. Spix figures one of them pl. xxii, at least a closely allied spedes,- Pipa curururu, Spix,-from the bottom of the Brazilian lakes, and asserts that the female does not carry her young; he does not inform us, bowever, that he observed her during the whole year.( l) SALAMAN-DR-A, Brogn. Salamanders have an elongated body, four feet and a long tail, which gives them the general form of Lizards, with which Linnreus placed them: but they have all the characters of Batrach,ians. Their head is flattened; the ear completely hidden under the muscles, without any tympanum, having nothing but a small cartilaginous plate on the fenestra ovalis; the two jaws furnished with numerous and small teeth; two longitudinal rows of similar teeth in the ?alate, but attached to bones analogous to the vomer; the tongue as m the Frogs; no third eye-lid; a skeleton with very small rudiments of ribs, but without a bony sternum; a pelvis suspended from the spine by ligaments; four toes before, and almost always five behind. In their adult state, respiration is performed as in Frogs and Tortoises. Their tadpoles at first breathe by means of branchire resembling tufts, three on each side of the neck, which are subse~ uently obliterC\ted; they are suspended to cartilaginous arches, vestiges of which remain in the hyoid bone of the adult. A membranous operculum covers these openings, but the tufts are never enclosed by a tunic, and always float externally. The fore feet are developed before the hind ones; the toes appear successively in the first and the last, SALAMANDRA, Laur. The terrestrial Salamanders in a perfect state have a round tail and inhabit the water only during their tadpole condition, which i; but a short period; or when the female is ready to bring forth. The eggs are hatched in the oviduct. (l} There is a true Pip a in the Cabinet du Roi, from Rio Negro, which is entirely ~mooth, and with an unusually narrow head. It will be my Pipal a:vi8, very cliferent from that of Merrem, which is a Dactylethra. \ |