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SALAMANDERS 239

Proteus and Szren breathe by gills all through life, .
and have no maxillary bones; Szrez has no hind
legs. Proteus anguinus is a long white creature with
feathery gills, which lives in the caves of Carniola
all in darkness, and has only rudiments of eyes. The
largest of the Caudata—and, indeed, the largest of the
living amphibia—is the gigantic salamander of Eastern
Asia, which is over four feet long.

APODA.—In this order there are nearly forty
species, all of them belonging to the Cecilide:
burrowing creatures, like worms, without limbs, or
girdles, or tail, and with rudimentary eyes and ten-
tacles, most of them hatched from eggs, one, at least,
of them being born alive. They are all found in
the tropics—some in Asia, some in Africa, some in
America—most of them spending their lives buried
in the mud; some of them living in water; all of
them more or less of a puzzle to the species-maker,
and chiefly interesting as ‘links’ or ‘intermediates.’
Perhaps the most remarkable of the group is
Icthyophis, which lays its eggs in a hole in damp
earth, and then coils itself around them to protect
them until they are hatched.