HYNOBIIDAE. 509 



the night, the Japanese, with torches, go to hunt these animals, which 

 they catch in abundance on damp, moss-covered rocks. 



" It is said that they stay by preference near waterfalls, and that 

 they like to climb on the damp walls of the cliffs whence they precipi- 

 tate themselves into the water. They catch them then with lines 

 and put them alive into terra-cotta pots. In preparing them for 

 medical use they pierce the head without gutting them and thread 

 them on a thin bamboo so as to form packets of 10-20. When dried 

 they are brown and oily to the touch. 



" The larvae appear at the end of April. Mr. Siebqld has seen them 

 at this time during his stay in the Fakone Mts." 



Tago (1907) describes the habits as follows: "This animal always 

 likes a cool, shady place where they do not have the direct light of 

 the sun, and with considerable dampness and clear water." 



He describes the junction of a small river with the Sukumo River 

 at Kiwadasawa, Sagami Province. "At this junction in the woods 

 hundreds of these animals gather every year. 



"Nearly a mile up this stream beyond a rapid there is a large rock 

 on the left covered with wild wistaria and other vines and called Kuro 

 yuwa or Tate yinca (Black Rock or Standing Rock) and many years 

 ago, so I understand, the water was so high that it covered half of this 

 rock and made a fall to the valley behind it. 



"Every spring when the azaleas begin to bloom hundreds of these 

 animals, male as well as female, gather on this rock and the inhabitants 

 catch them by the light of torches. 



" In Nikko they call this animal Hibihari and young ones are found 

 in the ponds of Nikko shrine, Umagayeshi, around Chugushi Lake, 

 Yuhake, and other waters in the mountains, but adults seem to be 

 restricted to two or three places, and it is difficult to catch them 

 unless you know a definite place where they live. The most con- 

 venient places to find them are in woods near lakes, where it is shady 

 and damp and usually with northern exposure. Every year I used to 

 catch them at Suganuma, Katashinamura Tome, Gumma Prefecture. 



" The lake is about ten miles in circumference, running north and 

 south, irregular in width, its three wide spaces being called Irinuma, 

 Nahanuma, and Kitamata. Covered with thick spruce of natural 

 growth, and with the mosses and detritus of several centuries it is 

 naturally kept shady and damp and suited to the happiness and com- 

 fort of this animal, and we can find them always under these shady 

 places, but in the breeding season they come out to the beach at a 

 point where it is open to the north. 



