326 INEZ WHIPPLE WILDER. 



to be supplied with a rich capillary network, rendering it an 

 efficient breathing organ. 



As I have shown elsewhere (Whipple, '06), the lungless sala- 

 manders do not have the habit, otherwise common to amphibians, 

 of changing from aerial to aquatic bucco-pharyngeal respiration 

 when in the water, even though they may be kept completely 

 immersed for several days. Under these conditions the external 

 nares are kept tightly closed and the floor of the mouth forcibly 

 drawn in. The immersed condition is of course an unnatural one 

 for Desmognathus as is shown by its frantic efforts to escape from 

 the water, but it shows nevertheless no physical ill effects of a 

 prolonged imprisonment beneath the surface, a proof that the 

 skin is under these conditions a perfectly adequate breathing 

 organ. 



In his paper on Desmognathus fusca and Spelerpes bilineatus, 

 H. H. Wilder ('99) pointed out the great possibilities which are 

 presented by both Desmognathus and Spelerpes as objects for 

 laboratory study. The abundance and widespread occurrence 

 of the two genera, the ease with which they may be collected in 

 both the larval and the adult states throughout the entire college 

 year, and the convenience with which they may be kept alive in 

 the laboratory for months, with practically no care, render the 

 material always available and inexpensive. The following ac- 

 count taken from Wilder ('99) gives valuable suggestions as to 

 methods of keeping such material in the laboratory: 



''Method of Rearing in Confinement. The adults of both 

 species, because of their peculiarities in respiration and the 

 consequent necessity of keeping their skin moist, cannot be kept 

 either in water or in a dry atmosphere, but may easily be kept 

 for months or years in an ordinary fernery where the atmosphere 

 is constantly saturated with moisture. I have in my laboratory 

 a large fernery or terrarium, about 2X3 feet square and 2 feet 

 high. The bottom consists of a zinc tray, 8 inches deep and 

 water-tight. The top and sides are of glass and the front side 

 runs in a frame with weights, being thus capable of being raised 

 and lowered like an ordinary window-sash. In the bottom of 

 this there are about 6 inches of good garden soil, in which are 

 planted ferns and other wood plants. The surface is partly 



