REACTIONS OF THE SPOTTED NEWT 193 



it often responded by snapping its jaws, even after the pipette 

 was withdrawn. If the pipette were held still, very close to the 

 nose of the animal, it would often be seized by the animal and 

 held in the mouth, just as were the tasteless substances in 

 Experiment i ; this seldom happened when a clean pipette was 

 held close to the nose of the same animal. No attention was paid 

 to a jet of pure water squirted against the nose, nor to a jet 

 of water in which cane sugar had been dissolved. 



In many cases the fluid in the water, after the withdrawal of 

 the pipette, caused the animal to put its nose to the bottom, 

 in its characteristic way, as though searching for food ; and 

 with one animal the fluid not only caused this reaction, but it 

 caused the animal to rub over the bottom with open mouth, 

 and to snap, again and again, at spots in the glass bottom. 



In some cases the pipette was held in such a position that it 

 could probably not be seen by the animal, but the juice pro- 

 duced the same reaction as before. 



In a few cases an animal which failed to respond to the meat 

 fluid responded very quickly to a piece of meat, which would 

 seem to indicate that sight is perhaps as important as smell 

 and taste in securing food; later experiments, described below, 

 seemed to disprove this, however. 



Raw meat juice that had been allowed to stand until it had 

 become rancid enough to have a decided odor, caused a negative 

 response in nearly all of the animals. With these same animals 

 that had withdrawn from the stale juice, the fresh juice caused 

 in nearly every case a positive response such as has been 

 described above — in one or two animals an extremely active 

 snapping motion. The stale juice had no effect except upon 

 the head of the animals. 



An extract was made by grinding earthworms in a mortar 

 with a little water and filtering the resulting fluid. This liquid 

 was used in a pipette just as was the meat extract, first the 

 meat and then the earthworm extract, but no difference in the 

 reactions of the animals could be detected to show that they 

 preferred one rather than the other. 



In securing food, then, it is probable that Diemyctylus uses 

 both sight and the telaesthetic sense, perhaps the latter more 

 than the former. After the food has been located and seized, 

 a chemical sense, taste or smell, usually decides whether it shall 



