SALAMANDRINAE 129 



limbs, pressing the leaves closely around the cloaca. She next 

 turns on her side, or occasionally on her back ; with fore- 

 limbs outstretched and rigid, with hind-limbs and leaves com- 

 pletely hiding the cloaca, she remains perfectly motionless for 

 six to eight minutes. Then she slowly leaves the " nest," which 

 now holds an egg well protected by a tangle of shoots glued 

 together by the gelatinous secretion poured out of the cloaca. 

 Jordan concludes, from the fact that he never found spermatozoa 

 in the oviducts, that the eggs are fertilised just before they are 

 expelled, when passing the receptaculum seminis. 



The metamorphosed young pass their life on land under 

 stones and logs as the so-called red variety, which is merely a 

 stage in the life-history of the species. It seems to take them 

 several years to reach maturity, and to become again typically 

 aquatic. Young, red individuals which I have myself kept, 

 have behaved for more than a year like the young of other 

 newts, spending their time under moss and bark without going 

 into the water. 



The change from the red-spotted stage has been exhaustively 

 studied by Gage. 1 He remarks that this species is very common 

 near Ithaca, in an upland forest and along the head-waters of 

 the Susquehannah. The transformation takes place either in 

 the autumn or in the spring, either while the newt is still on 

 land, or after entering the water. 



Of two which were kept in a jar with moist wood, one was 

 especially brilliant, but within two weeks it assumed, in the 

 middle of September, the characteristic coloration of the viri- 

 descent form. The two specimens were in the jar until the 

 following July, when they were placed where they could enter 

 the water. This they did with great readiness, and they re- 

 mained submerged for a considerable time at first. The time 

 under water increased in length, until within two or three days 

 the pharyngeal respiration under water was fully established. 

 On the other hand, viridescent specimens never reassume the 

 red garb when kept out of the water. 



Red specimens entering the water in the spring, changed 

 into the greenish form within a few weeks, and established 

 the pharyngeal respiration, losing the ciliated oral epithelium. 

 Branchiate larvae and the adult aquatic forms have non-ciliated 



1 Amer. Natural. 1891, p. 1084. 

 VOL. VIII K 



