HYNOBIIDAE. 471 



eggs, agrees with the male, except that the vomerine series is shorter, 

 equalling in length the distance between the outer edge of the nares 

 and the median line; rather darker, brownish gray, more mottled 

 above and below, but very nearly uniform; total length 91 mm., head 

 11.5, body 41, tail 38. 



In spite of the shorter legs, slightly shorter head, and paler color I 

 regard these as the same species as the Inawashiro ones. 



An adult female from Inawashiro, containing large eggs, Cal. Acad. 

 Sci. No. 26697, measures 96 mm. 



I refer to this species larvae from Northern Hondo which agree in 

 general appearance with larvae of retardatus differing in the absence 

 of the dark band on the sides and of the circular spots on the tail. 



If my opinion that peropus, 7icbulosns as described by Stejneger, 

 liehenatus, nigrcscens, and fascus are the same is correct, the following 

 are additional variations. 



The tail may be longer than head and body (ncbulosus Stejneger, 

 nigrcscens, fuscus) , the vomerine series may be somewhat shorter than 

 in the female from Hakone (liehenatus), the animal may reach a total 

 length of 135 mm. (ncbulosus Stejneger), 150 mm. {nigrcscens), or 

 160 mm. (fuscus). 



Habits: I quote from Tago (1907) his passages concerning the 

 habits of this animal in the region around Nikko. 



"Shobu Beach is that part of Lake Chuzenji where the Yugawa 

 River joins the lake. There is an inlet leading to an ice-pond at this 

 point, which I happened to pass during a rain in late October, 1904. 

 The trees were completely bare after a storm the previous day and the 

 foliage everywhere was under my feet instead of over my head. I saw 

 a small dark creature moving among the leaves in the inlet and caught 

 three large, fat monsters measuring 16 cm. each and after careful 

 search found two more of the same size which probably go out into the 

 lake in the spring to breed. 



"Tada Lake, which has many streams entering it but no outlet, is 

 located north of Yumoto where I kept my headquarters for this re- 

 search. Most of my time from early morning until night was spent 

 around this lake which is situated between Onsen Cliff and the back 

 of Yumoto Mt. Evidently volcanic action some generations ago has 

 closed one end of the valley and streams from every direction have 

 gathered to make a lake at this point. It is elongated, lying at the 

 foot of the mountain and at one end the water is very deep, gradually 

 becoming shallow and narrow at the other end which is dammed up. 

 At this shallow end an uninterrupted growth of firs and spruces makes 



