Page:Natural History, Reptiles.djvu/273

Rh bones of the limbs detached from their principal articulation, and remaining suspended by some points which still caused them to adhere to the flesh, were found completely consolidated in a few days. The most extraordinary observation was that consequent on the total extirpation of the eye, which was entirely reproduced and perfectly organized at the end of a year. Dufay has recorded their faculty of remaining frozen up in ice for a long period without perishing.”

An experiment by M. Duméril, remarkably shewed the tenacity of life in these Reptiles. A Triton, deprived of its head, lived for three months, in evident consciousness of existence, walking cautiously, and occasionally coming to the surface of the water; though deprived of the organs of every sense, except that of touch.

The Urodela are found in all the temperate and warm regions of the globe. They are all comprised in a single Family.

We need not repeat the distinctive characters of this Family, as these have already been enumerated in our account of the Order Urodela, with which it is co-extensive. They are for the most part animals of small size, rarely exceeding a few inches in length: the Gigantic Salamander (Sieboldtia maxima, .), however, recently found in the mountain lakes of Japan, is three feet long. This species, a specimen of which was brought alive to Europe, feeds on fishes; but the ordinary prey of the Salamanders, both