Page:First course in biology (IA firstcourseinbio00bailrich).pdf/374



Any batrachian may easily be passed around the class after placing it in a tumbler with gauze or net tied over top. It should be kept in a box with two inches of moist earth on the bottom. If no live insects are obtainable for feeding a toad, bits of moist meat may be dangled from the end of a string. If tadpoles are placed in a pool or tub in a garden, the toads hatched will soon make destructive garden insects become a rarity.

Does a frog or a salamander have the more primitive form of body? Why do you think so? Salamanders are sometimes called mud puppies. The absurd belief that salamanders are poisonous is to be classed with the belief that toads cause warts. The belief among the ancients that salamanders ate fire arose perhaps from seeing them coming away from fires that had been built over their holes on river banks by travelers. Their moist skin protected them until the fire became very hot.

Describe the "mud puppy" shown in Fig. 262. In the West the pouched gopher, or rat (Fig. 371), is sometimes absurdly called a salamander.

(Proteus anguinus). × 1/2. Found in caves and underground streams in Balkans. Gills external, tail finlike, legs small.