Reptiles and Birds by Louis Figuier

Those geographers who divide the world into land and sea overlook in their nomenclature the extensive geographical areas which belong permanently to neither section—namely, the vast marshy regions on the margins of lakes, rivers, and ponds, which are alternately deluged with the overflow of the adjacent waters, and parched and withering under the exhalations of a summer heat; regions which could only be inhabited by beings capable of living on land or in water; beings having both gills through which they may breathe in water, and lungs through which they may respire the common air. The first order of reptiles possesses this character, and hence its name of Amphibia, from aµf?ß???, having a double life.