FIELD BOOK OF PONDS AND STREAMS 



their spring breeding or fall mating season. Young red 

 newts (PL XIX) are most at home in a damp ferner}^ Both 

 young and older ones can be fed bits of meat, earthworms or 

 raw beef. 



April to October. — Like red newts, the spring peepers, 

 Hyia crucifer (Fig. 302), will live the year round in a damp 

 vivarium. They only need plenty of moisture and occasion- 

 ally a few live worms and insects. 



April to May a7id Atigusi to September. — Tree frogs, Hyla 

 versicolor (Fig. 301), also live well in a damp shaded vivarium 

 (p. 40). 



March to November. — Bullfrog and green frog tadpoles will 

 live on algaj for months but a medium sized aquarium holding 

 about a gallon or more of water should have only two or three 

 in it. 



Giant Salamanders — CryptobranchidcB 



Hellbender, Cryptobranchus alleganiensis. — ^The hell- 

 bender is an animal which is rarely discovered but once seen 

 it is warranted to hold one's attention. It is commonly a foot 

 and a half long, the largest salamander in North America. 

 Its body is olive colored or reddish brown with darker patches 

 and is so broad and flat that it almost completely overshadows 

 the short, bowed-out legs (Fig. 287). Its small eyes are nearly 

 hidden in an expanse of slimy forehead. The thick oozy skin 

 fits loosely, gathered into fleshy folds along each side of the 

 body, and when lying quietly on the bottom a hellbender 

 looks like an old, wrinkled, and defunct cucumber. 



Habits, habitat. — Hellbenders stay in the water all their 

 lives. Although they have lungs they do not use them, but 

 rely chiefly on their skins for respiration ; their gill-slits which 

 open into the sides of the throat do not seem to have any 

 function. Hellbenders 'live in crevices among rocks or in 

 woody debris in creeks and rivers. 



