356 PROCEEDINGS OF THE ACADEMY OF [July, 



NOTE ON THE DUSKY SALAMANDER. 

 BY HENRY W. FOWLER. 



Near Port Allegany, in McKean county, and in the valleys of the 

 headwaters of the Genesee, Allegheny and Susquehanna, in Potter 

 county. Pa., Mr. T. D. Keim and the writer spent a few days, studying 

 the fauna, in the summers of 1904 and 1906. Most of the hemlock 

 forests have been cleared off, except near Port Allegany, where one 

 still has but a short time left to study the animal life in its primeval 

 conditions. 



Perhaps the most abundant in individuals among cold-blooded verte- 

 brates was the little dusky salamander, Desmognathus fusca. It was 

 found nearly everywhere in the valleys, about and in streams, and on 

 the comparatively dry mountain-tops, though there less numerous 

 and more solitary. About the headwaters of the Genesee they were 

 even more abundant, so that we had the opportunity of examining 

 multitud&s of living examples. So abundant were they in some 

 localities that as many as four or five would frequently occur under a 

 single small stone. Owing to the nature of the brooks about the 

 Genesee headwaters, which are very swift, cold and sinking out of 

 sight in some places to appear again in others, very favorable habitats 

 are secured in the comparatively damp intercovirses which are only 

 flooded in times of heavy rains. 



Very great range in color-pattern and color-variation was noted in 

 this species. Young an inch long had the pale area on the back more 

 or less immaculate pink or pale brown. The uppermost of the accom- 

 panying figures, Plate XIII, indicates this type. They varied from these 

 shades into the dusky-black adults. They did not always appear to 

 change from pinkish to brown, as some with pink backs were found 

 equally as large as the larger brownish ones. The pale colors of the 

 back were not always immaculate, many being variously blotched 

 or speckled with darker or brownish. Very dark or blackish examples, 

 not larger than the largest pink or brown ones, also occurred, though 

 these all showed traces to some extent of the dorsal color-pattern. 

 Most all full-grown examples lose every trace of the dorsal color-pattern 

 in the blackish of the back. 



