53 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



towards the last of July their appetites seemed to increase, and they 

 were fed every two days. They would never eat, as has been said, 

 while they were watched, but if the liver were left in the tank over 

 night, most of it would be eaten before morning. 



The extreme slowness of their digestion is shown by the fact that 

 liver eaten seventy hours before, on being disgorged showed very little 

 change, the pieces being of about the same size and consistency as when 

 swallowed. 



After about the middle of September, the hellbenders refused to 

 eat during a period of more than two months, though pieces of liver 

 were put into their tank at intervals. One morning at the end of this 

 period, on looking into the tank, something black was seen projecting 

 from the mouth of one of the largest hellbenders, which on close ex- 

 amination proved to be the end of the tail of the smallest of the 

 hellbenders, which had been swallowed head-first. By means of a pair 

 of forceps the smaller individual was withdrawn from within the 

 larger, and both immediately swam away, none the worse apparently 

 for their remarkable experience. The smaller hellbender was a little 

 more than half as long as the one by which it was swallowed. In spite 

 of this apparent return of appetite, the hellbenders ate but little of the 

 fresh supply of liver that was immediately given them. 



The remarkable vitality of the hellbender is well known by those 

 who have had any opportunity of studying the living animal. Mr. 

 Townsend in the article mentioned above says: "They are remarkably 

 tenacious of life. I carried my specimens six miles in a bag behind 

 me on horseback, under a blazing hot sun, and kept them five weeks 

 in a tub of water without a morsel to eat, and when I came to put them 

 in alcohol they seemed almost as fresh as ever. ' ' 



I had several illustrations of their tenacity of life. One of the first 

 specimens I obtained, a large one, more than 50 cm. in length, escaped 

 from the tank into which it had been placed and hid itself under a lot 

 of lumber and rubbish that was piled near by. After a long search 

 it was given up for lost, but one morning, just a week later, on going 

 into the cellar where the tank was kept, there lay the escaped hellbender, 

 dry and dusty but as well as ever, and the same animal is living at the 

 present time. Some months later, while they were living in a tank of 

 running water in the back yard of a city house, another hellbender 

 escaped and could not be found. Exactly three weeks later it was 

 found lying on the pavement outside of the yard. It was still living, 

 though extremely thin and weak, but it died a few hours after being 

 put back into the tank, possibly because it was too weak to swim to the 

 surface for air. During the three weeks it was lost it changed color 

 very decidedly, becoming a reddish-brown, with the dark spots showing 

 in sharp contrast. During the latter part of June sixteen hellbenders, 



