igoo] Odell — Salamander. 



53 



THE TWO-LINED SALAMANDER, SPELERPES BILINE- 



AT US (Green). 



By Walter S. Odell, Ottawa. 



This active amphibian is, according to Prof. Wilder, widely 

 distributed over the United States, and presumably over Canada, 

 but on account of its habits may not be readily found. The adult 

 newt is from seven to nine cm. in length, resembling the general 

 form of lizards. The head is long and flat, the body graceful and 

 slender, having a flattened tapering tail-fin about half its length, 

 Spelerpes in colour is dark brown with a dorsal stripe light brown 

 or fawn colour, lighter at its outer edges and bordered by a dark 

 brown stripe — hence its name "■ biliiiedtus.'" It is marbled along 

 the sides; the ventral side is a light lemon colour, without pigment 

 spots. Its heart, like that of frogs, has but one auricle, while the 

 heart of lizards has two. But unlike the frogs it has no luno-s, 

 but depends upon the surface of its integument and the walls of 

 the pharynx for respiration. As it is nocturnal in its habits, the 

 adult is not frequently seen. 



Locality and Habitat. — The adults are found in and about 

 running brooks plentifully supplied with small stones, and under- 

 neath bits of fallen logs that lie in the itnmediate vicinity of the 

 edges of brooks. The larvse are sought for in water at the 

 bottoms of gravelly pools or underneath flat stones in springs or 

 small mountain brooks. They much resemble small minnows at 

 this stage, and when disturbed dart away with as great swiftness. 

 It was this fact which first brought them to my attention. Find- 

 ing several so-called minnows in a tiny spring in the gravel pits at 

 Britannia, where it was unlikely minnows would be found, I was 

 led to examine them closer, and to my surprise found a strange 

 animal, between an eel and a minnow, with a head like the latter, 

 having gills projecting like horns from each side; with four feet 

 having toes not webbed, and with a long tail like an eel's. 



Specimens were sent to Prof. L. Stejneger of the Smithsonian 

 Institution at Washington. He very kindly identified them for 

 me, and also referred me to Prof. Wilder, Northampton, Mass., 



