132 Brimley — Notes on the Zoology of Lake Ellis, North Carolina. 



In general form the animal very much resembles a larval Spelerpes but 

 differs from them in its markings. The general larval appearance how- 

 ever, togetlier with the absence of gills is sufficient to easily distinguish it 

 from all our other salamanders. 



In color it is brown with longitudinal dark lines along the sides, these 

 being often more or less broken ; the underparts are pale usually sprin- 

 kled with little dark spots like fly-specks, but they are occasionally mar- 

 bled or immaculate. The larvpe, which attain nearly the size of the adult 

 before losing the gills, are similar in color, l)ut usually unspotted below 

 and with the lines on the sides less pronounced; occasionally, however, 

 they differ from the adults only in the presence of gills. One adult had 

 the gills lacking but the gill cleft still open. The groups of large pores on 

 the head are very characteristic, and even to tlie naked eye give it a 

 pitted appearance. 



The measurements of fourteen adults, including all the largest, were: 

 Total length, maximum 95, minimum 65, average 81; tail, maximum 45, 

 minimum 31, average 36.7. Eleven larvse measured as follows: Total 

 length, maximum 87, minimum 62, average 75.5; tail, maximum 42, 

 minimum 29, average 36.7. 



Desmognathus fusca. 



BROWN TRITON. 



Common, usually under trash or dead leaves near water, less aquatic 

 than Stereochilus. 



Amphiuma means. 



DITCH EEL. 



Two specimens 201, and 195 mm. long taken in pools in Great Lake 

 woods in May, 1906. These were of cour.se typical means, with two-toed 

 feet, and darker and more uniform coloration. Of the two forms of the 

 ditch eel 1 have had numbers of specimens and have never seen any inter- 

 grades. The three-toed specimens (tridactyla), of wliieh I have had over 

 a hundred at different times, all from Hale County, Alabama, differed 

 from the two-toed ones in being lighter colored both above and below, 

 and in living specimens at least, in being distinctly bicolored, the imder- 

 parts being nearly white and distinctly defined from the color of the sides, 

 and not gradually fading into it; the limbs of the three-toed form also 

 seem to me to be more strongly developed than in typical means. Typical 

 means is distinguished from tridactyla, by the smaller number of toes and 

 by the color being blackish above, pa.ssing gradually into paler slate below. 

 It does not seem tr> attain as great a size as tridactyla, as although I have 

 liandk^d as many sjiccimens as of the other, I have never seen a means 

 attain the size and particularly the girth of the largest specimens of tri- 

 dactyla, I had one recently that measured 29 inches long and 6 inches in 

 girth, and I think I have seen still bigger ones. 



Siren lacertina. 



BLACK EEL. 



Thirteen specimens ranging from 120 to 222 mm. long taken in pools 

 in May, 1906, as described under the head of Stereochilus. 



