Magnificent specimens of this gigantic Salamander, the _Sieboldtia maxima_, may be seen by the visitors to the London Zoological Gardens. The largest of them measured and weighed as above (March 3rd, 1869). An analogous large fossil species was described as the _Homo diluvii testis_! The transformation of the tailed Batrachians, from the _tadpole_ condition to the air-breathing and four-footed state, is one of the most interesting exhibitions of Nature, and one which everyone may verify for himself. We cannot in our brief description have a more trustworthy guide than Professor Rymer Jones, who selects the Water Newt, _Triton cristatus_, as an example:-- "Immediately before leaving the egg," he says, "this tadpole presents both the outward form and internal structure of a fish. The flattened and vertical tail, fringed with a broad dorsal and oval fin; the shape of the body and gills, appended to the side of the neck, are all apparent; so that were the creature to preserve this form throughout its life the naturalist would scarcely hesitate in classing it with fishes, properly so called. "When first hatched it presents the same fish-like body, and rows itself through the water by the lateral movement of the caudal fin. The only appearance of legs as yet visible consists in two minute tubercles, which seem to be sprouting out from the skin immediately behind the branchial tufts, and which are, in fact, the first buddings of anterior extremities. Nevertheless, to compensate to a certain extent for the total want of prehensile limbs, which afterwards become developed, two supernumerary organs are provisionally furnished in the shape of two minute claspers on each side of the mouth; by means of these the little creature holds on to the leaves which are under water. "Twelve days after issuing from the egg, the two fore-legs, which at first resembled two little nipples, have become much elongated, and are divided at their extremity into two or three rudiments of fingers. The eyes, which were before scarcely visible, being covered by a membrane, distinctly appear. The branchiæ, at first simple, are divided into fringes, wherein red blood now circulates; the mouth has grown very large, and the whole body is so transparent as to reveal the position of the viscera within. Its activity is likewise much increased; it swims with rapidity, and darts upon minute aquatic insects, which it seizes and devours. "About the twenty-second day the tadpole for the first time begins to emit air from the mouth, showing that the lungs have begun to be developed. The branchiæ are still large. The fingers upon the fore-legs are completely formed. The hind-legs begin to sprout beneath the skin, and the creature presents, in a transitory condition, the same external form as that which the _Siren lacertina_ permanently exhibits.