260 INEZ WHIFFLE WILDER. 



and is one of the many devices which it is necessary for a ter- 

 restrial form to develop to resist the drying action of the air. 



EGG LAYING HABITS. 



Concerning the egg laying habits of Desmognathus fusca we 

 have several published reports. According to Hilton ('09), the 

 eggs are found most abundantly from the last of June to the 

 middle or last of July. Kingsbury ('02) reports eggs of Des- 

 mognathus found at Ithaca during July and August, and refers to 

 the statement of Sherwood ('95) that they have been found 

 from July to October. Reed and Wright ('09) give July as the 

 time of maximum egg laying. In western Massachusetts, in the 

 immediate vicinity of Northampton I have found eggs as early 

 as the eleventh of June and as late as the twenty-fourth of 

 September, although, since in the latter instance the eggs were just 

 at the point of hatching, they were probably deposited during the 

 latterpart of August. As reported by H. H. Wilder ('o4),eggs have 

 been deposited by individuals in captivity in the Smith College 

 laboratory as early as June first. It is thus safe to state that the 

 egg-laying period extends at least from the first of June to the 

 last of August and possibly through September. As suggested 

 by Hilton, temperature and humidity may have much to do 

 with determining the exact time, and it should be further noted 

 in this connection that the latest brood of my own observations, 

 that of September 24, 1907, occurred at the end of a singularly 

 cold summer, and may have been belated from that cause. 



The eggs are laid in a small batch consisting usually of two 

 masses and numbering about 20 in all (15-20 according to Hilton), 

 a number which corresponds in general also to the count of the 

 ripe eggs found in the ovaries of a large number of females 

 which I have examined for purposes of comparison. The total 

 number is practically constant, being 10 or II in each ovary. 

 A few show a smaller number or a greater inequality, such as 

 the case of 9 in the left and 5 in the right ovary, or of 13 in the 

 left and 4 in the right ovary. 



The small number of eggs deposited at a time as compared, 

 for example, with several hundred reported for Cryptobranchus 

 allegheniensis (Smith, '06, '07 and '12), 130-225 for Amblystoma 



