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.
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Fig. 262.—Blind Salamander (Proteus anguinus). × 1/2. Found in caves and underground streams in Balkans. Gills external, tail finlike, legs small.
