As regards the Reptiles, there are _no_ peculiar Alpine forms, but among the Amphibia some species deserve to be mentioned. Up to an elevation of 10,000 feet we find in the Alps the Black Salamander (_Salamandra atra_); and it is apparently quite peculiar to them, never having been observed in the plains. The handsome black and yellow Salamander (_Salamandra maculosa_)--so well known as a terrarium specimen--likewise occurs in the Alps, and it has besides a fairly wide distribution in Europe. It is known from Southern Germany, the Pyrenees, Spain, Portugal, Sardinia, Corsica, Greece, Syria, and Algiers. A third species (_S. caucasica_) inhabits the Caucasus. The evidence of distribution here points emphatically to an Alpine origin of the genus _Salamandra_. We cannot tell where the ancestors of _Salamandra_ may have come from, but several other genera of _Salamandridæ_ are certainly Asiatic. Our common Newt (_Molge vulgaris_) belongs to a genus with nineteen species, several of which are peculiar to Europe. The general range of the genus, however, extends to North America, and it is more probable therefore that it originated in Asia. If so, it certainly must have passed into Europe at a very early date. Let us assume the first _Molges_ to have traversed the Ægean Sea on _terra firma_ to Greece in miocene times, they might thus have been able to travel straight on to the old Tyrrhenian continent of which Corsica and Sardinia now form the remains, and also on to North-west Africa. Indeed, we find high up in the Corsican mountains an interesting large brownish-grey Newt (_Molge montana_), and another in Sardinia (_Molge Rusconii_). Again, in Algiers there are two species, viz., _Molge Poireti_ and _M. Hagenmülleri_, while the Moroccan _M. Waltlii_ passes into the south of Spain. Here _Molge boscæ_, _M. aspera_, and _M. marmorata_ originated, the latter passing into France. Another branch of the _Molge_ tribe turned northward from Greece towards the newly forming Alps; and there originated _Molge alpestris_ and _M. palmata_, which more recently have spread into England (one at least), Germany, France, Austria, and Southern Italy. _Molge vulgaris_ is an Asiatic species which wandered northward after entering Europe, covering a large area, but never reached the extreme south or south-west. _M. cristata_--the large Water Newt--has a similar but not quite so extended a range, while _M. vittata_ never managed to cross the borders of Asia Minor. Some of the other species occur in China, Japan, and North America. None of the tailless Batrachians--the Frogs and Toads--are peculiar to the Alps, but one, viz. _Rana temporaria_, ascends to the height of no less than 10,000 feet. It is our common British Frog. No other Frog probably ranges so far north or to such heights.