AMPHIBIANS 



their gills begin to shrink and their brownish color turns to 

 the bright coral-red of the young adult. 



Vivarium. — Red salamanders live well in the ordinary 

 damp shaded vivarium (p. 40) ; they thrive upon bits of 

 earthworm and fresh meat. 



Size. — Average length of adult 4 to 5 inches. 



Range. — Locally abundant in the eastern states except New 

 England; Albany County, New York, to Ohio, Kentucky, 

 New Jersey, North Carolina, westward to the Mississippi 

 River. 



Two-lined salamander, Eurycea bislineata. — The two- 

 lined salamander is small, slender, and very active and hides 

 beneath stones along brook borders (PL XIX). Its ground 

 color varies from brown to yellowish. On each side of the 

 back a dark line, gray or brown or black, extends from the 

 eye backward along the tail ; below the dark lines the sides of 

 the body are finely speckled with black and the under parts 

 are yellow. 



Habits and habitat. — The adults hide beneath flat stones 

 in the water-soaked mud and sand of brook-sides, slithering 

 and jumping out with amazing rapidity when disturbed. 

 The larvce, distinguishable by their gills, grow nearly as long 

 as the adults and stay in the same places, whence they dash 

 out with flash-like suddenness when the stones are moved. 



Food. — They live mainly upon water insects, worms, and 

 small crustaceans, seeking these by daylight in the shallow 

 water. 



Breeding habits. — They lay their eggs as early as April and 

 as late as the middle of August, on the undersides of stones 

 in flowing water. There may be as few as a dozen or two or 

 as many as sixty hanging from one stone, each one fastened 

 to it by a separate stalk of jelly. 



Life history. — The change from larval to adult form is very 

 gradual ; the salamanders may be at least two years old before 

 it is completed. The larvee are about 2 inches long before 



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