Page:Natural History, Reptiles.djvu/283

Rh lakes, in America and Europe. They subsist on worms, and probably other soft-bodied animals, which they find in the mud or water.

In this genus, which, from the singularity of its structure and appearance, and still more from the

anomalous character of the situation in which it is found, has excited great interest among zoologists, there are four short limbs, each pair greatly separated from the other, of which the fore feet have three toes, and the hind only two: the tail is vertically compressed, so as to form a swimming organ; the muzzle is lengthened and depressed; both jaws are furnished with minute teeth; the tongue is but slightly moveable, free at the anterior part: the eyes are excessively small and concealed beneath the skin of the head: the ear-drum is also concealed. The skeleton has considerable resemblance to that of the Salamanders, but the conformation of the skull is different; and the vertebræ are much more numerous, while the rudimentary ribs are fewer. The skin is smooth, viscid, and colourless. The branchiæ project from each side of the neck in the form of tufts, of a crimson hue.