16 INEZ WHIPPLE WILDER. 



examining the nest not to disturb her or her surroundings 

 beyond lifting the stone carefully from the nest and replacing it 

 with equal care, in exactly the same position. She was invariably 

 found in the same peculiar attitude with relation to the eggs, 

 and always with the head oriented in the same direction. 



On August 24, after the eggs of the first batch had begun to 

 hatch, both of the mothers were removed from their respective 

 eggs. The mother of the second batch was killed and preserved. 

 The mother of the first batch, now hatching, was transferred to 

 the terrarium containing the second batch, now motherless, but 

 was placed in the part of the terrarium farthest from the stone 

 under which the eggs were located. Great care was taken to 

 leave the sphagnum surrounding the eggs, and the stone covering 

 them in the same relative position which they had had throughout 

 the incubation period. 



On the following day when the terrarium was examined the 

 female was not in sight, but upon lifting the stone, she was found 

 under it brooding the eggs and standing over them in exactly the 

 same unusual position which their own mother had habitually 

 assumed. She remained with them and was always found in 

 the same position, with her body oriented in the same direction, 

 until, on September 2, a week later, all of the eggs had hatched. 

 Upon this date the young were found clinging to the body of their 

 foster mother as she stood with her customary orientation, a 

 number of them surrounding the middle of her body like a rosette, 

 with their long axes parallel to hers but with their heads pointing 

 in the opposite direction. When she was disturbed, a few were 

 somewhat scattered while most of them still clung to her body. 

 After a few days, the adult was found in the little pool at the 

 opposite end of the terrarium, and the young, still in the terres- 

 trial larval stage, \vere distributed through the moist sphagnum 

 between the nest and the pool. 



Of course there is no means for determining whether the 

 actual finding of the eggs by the foster mother was a reaction to 

 the proximity of the eggs themselves, or was a purely accidental 

 occurrence, since Desmognathus frequently seeks out positions 

 under stones and other objects lying upon the surface. Ob- 

 viously, however, in her subsequent week of continual brooding 



