surface of the water. Whitish, cone-shaped objects about one-half an inch 

 high and a quarter of an inch across at the base may often be seen on sub- 

 merged vegetation. These are the spermatophores left by the males to be 

 picked up by the females. Many of the family Plethodontidae attach their 

 eggs to the under sides of stones at the edges of small mountain streams. The 

 unpigmented eggs are attached by slender stalks and may occur singly or in 

 small, grape-like bunches. The newts are not uniform in their breeding habits, 

 the western or giant California newt, Triturus torosus, attaching small masses 

 of pigmented eggs to sticks and vegetation, while the common newt, Triturus 

 viridescens viridescens, wraps each egg separately in the rolled leaf of some 

 water plant. The large water salamanders, the hell-bender and the Congo 

 snake, lay groups of unpigmented eggs connected by slender strings of jelly. 

 The mudpuppy suspends many unpigmented eggs separately from the under 

 sides of submerged logs and rocks. 



During most of the spring and summer one species or another of the frogs 

 or toads is breeding. Most species have a limited mating season but a few, such 

 as the spring peeper, Hyla crucifer, may be heard callmg from early spring to 

 midsummer. Most frogs' eggs are laid in bunches of many pigmented eggs 

 with one or more jelly envelopes around each egg but without any common 

 envelope around the whole mass. The wood frogs are usually the first to lay. 

 Their eggs are often confused with those of the salamanders of the Ambystoma 

 group but, unlike those of most salamanders and most of the other frogs, most 

 of the bunches of wood frog eggs in a pond are often concentrated in one great, 

 semi-floating mass. Meadow and upland frogs lay somewhat later, the meadow 

 frog depositing masses of black and white eggs, while those of the upland frog 

 are brown above and cream colored below. Green frogs and bullfrogs lay dur- 

 ing the summer and produce floating sheets of eggs. The spring peeper and 

 the cricket frog scatter their eggs singly among water weeds, so that they are 

 very difficult to find and are rarely seen. The true toads lay long, curling 

 strings of jelly containing pigmented eggs in serial arrangement. 



Some invertebrate eggs are noticeable features of ponds and streams. Small 

 plates of jelly on submerged logs and plants are likely to be snail eggs — usually 

 a hand lens will enable one to see the tiny shells forming around the young 

 snails in each mass. Some of the crustaceans, of which the crayfish is the most 

 conspicuous example, carry bunches of gelatinous eggs attached to their abdo- 

 mens. Insect eggs are infinitely numerous and varied. Many are deposited 

 singly and are so small that they usually escape notice. Others are laid in 

 groups, with or without gelatinous coverings. Long strings of jelly of the 

 approximate diameter of strings of toad eggs, often encountered when one picks 

 the blossoms of the white or yellow water lilies, are probably the egg masses 

 of some of the dragonflies, the individual eggs appearing as brownish, irregular- 

 ly scattered dots. (Many species of dragonflies deposit their eggs singly at the 



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