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Updated: June 15, 2025
We can see why whole groups of organisms, as batrachians and terrestrial mammals, should be absent from oceanic islands, whilst the most isolated islands possess their own peculiar species of aerial mammals or bats. We can see why there should be some relation between the presence of mammals, in a more or less modified condition, and the depth of the sea between an island and the mainland.
You should not blame a bream because it is not a barbel, or a chub for not being a trout, yet the angler grumbles if he catches the humbler fish when aiming at the noble; we are all agreed that the gardener was not justified in "larning" with a spade the squalid batrachians to be toads; even musical comedies ought not to be criticized with spade strokes, although in connection with them it is a pity that a spade so rarely has been called by its proper name.
The Sulphur Tyrant-bird picks up a young snake by the tail, and, flying to a branch or stone, uses it like a flail until its life is battered out. W. H. Hudson, Naturalist in La Plata, p. 73. It would be a paradox to attribute great intelligence to Batrachians; yet certain facts are recorded which show them to be capable of reflection.
Allowing for the unfortunate slip of the pen by which "batrachians" are substituted for "fresh-water polyps," how can we fail to admire the severity of the scientific method employed in reaching these interesting conclusions? But the King of Serendib must die, nor will the relentless scythe of Time spare our Etherians, with all their exalted attributes.
Another group may be finally mentioned, viz. the frogs and toads, anourous Batrachians, of which we have at present no relic of any kind linking them on to the Eft group on the one hand, or to reptiles on the other. The only instance in which an approach towards a series of nearly related forms has been obtained is the existing horse, its predecessor Hipparion and other extinct forms.
Nothing but a streak out of a fifty-dollar lecture. As when, at some unlooked-for moment, the mighty fountain-column springs into the air before the astonished passer-by, silver-footed, diamond- crowned, rainbow-scarfed, from the bosom of that fair sheet, sacred to the hymns of quiet batrachians at home, and the epigrams of a less amiable and less elevated order of reptilia in other latitudes.
In 1865, several species belonging to three different genera of the same family of perennibranchiate Batrachians were found in the coal-field of Kilkenny in bituminous shale at the junction of the coal with the underlying Stigmaria- bearing clay.
To avoid such mistakes, one need only remember that reptiles are covered with scales and that batrachians have smooth skins. Our walks will become more and more interesting as we spread our interest over a wider field, not confining our observations to birds and mammals alone, but including members of the two equally distinctive classes of animals mentioned above.
It is larger in the embryo than in the adult man, still larger in some lower vertebrates, and in certain lizards has been found to exist as an eye, its parts plainly distinguishable under the microscope. It is placed in the middle of the forehead, between the other eyes, and was no doubt an active organ of vision in some ancient batrachians.
Yet if we compare the older Reptiles and Batrachians, the older Fish, the older Cephalopods, and the eocene Mammals, with the recent members of the same classes, we must admit that there is truth in the remark. Let us see how far these several facts and inferences accord with the theory of descent with modification.
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