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 a 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 travellers. Their moist skin protected them until the fire became very hot. Describe the “mud puppy” shown in Fig. 262. The pouched gopher, or rat (Fig. 371), is sometimes absurdly called a salamander. [Illustration: FIG. 262.—BLIND SALAMANDER (_Proteus anguinus_). × ½. Found in caves and underground streams in Balkans. Gills external, tail finlike, legs small. ] CHAPTER XII REPTILIA (REPTILES) This =class= is divided into _four orders_ which have such marked differences of external form that there is no difficulty in distinguishing them. These orders are represented by _Lizards_, _Snakes_, _Turtles_, and _Alligators_. Of these, only the forms of lizards and alligators have similar proportions, but there is a marked difference in their size, lizards being, in general, the smallest, and alligators the largest of the reptiles. [Illustration: FIG. 263.—A SALAMANDER. ] [Illustration: FIG. 264.—A LIZARD. ] =Comparison of Lizards and Salamanders.=—To make clear the difference between reptiles and batrachians, it will be well to compare the orders in the two classes which resemble each other in size and shape; namely, lizards and salamanders (Figs. 263 and 264). State in a tabular form their differences in _skin_, _toe_, _manner of breathing_, _development from egg_, _shape of tail_, _habitat_, _habits_. Each has an elongated body, two pairs of limbs, and a long tail, yet they are easily distinguished. Are the differences suggested above valid for the other batrachians (frogs) and other reptiles (_e.g._ turtles)? Trace the same differences between the toad or frog (Fig. 250) and the “horned toad,” which is a lizard (Fig. 265). [Illustration: FIG. 265.—“HORNED TOAD” LIZARD, of the Southwest (_Phrynosoma cornita_). × ⅔. ] STUDY OF A TURTLE OR A TORTOISE