AMPHIBIANS 



Fig. 287. — Hellbender and eggs, Cryptobranchus 

 alleganiensis. 



Food. — They eat all kinds of small water animals, foraging 

 only at night. 



Breeding habits. — In breeding habits hellbenders are more 

 like fishes than salamanders. Like the sunfish and other 

 fishes, the male hellbender clears a basin-shaped cavity or nest 

 on the bottom, usually in September. There he awaits the 

 female, which enters it, and as she lays her strings of eggs he 

 sheds the spermatozoa over them, afterward chasing her from 

 the nest and standing guard above them, but occasionally 

 eating a few himself (Fig. 287). 



Size. — Length of adult 12 to 18 inches. 



Range. — Western New York and central Pennsylvania to 

 Louisiana, and westward to Iowa. 



Newts — PleurodelidcB 



Red newt, spotted newt, Triturus viridescens. — The "red 

 eft" or "red lizard" cf the woods, and the "spotted newt" 

 of the ponds are different color phases of the same animal, 



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