222 PROCEEDINGS OF UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



According to my observations, several days before tbe spawning tlie 

 male spermatizes all the water in the aquarium and the zoosperms 

 (spermatozoa) penetrate directly into the oviduct of the female, thus 

 fecundating the eggs. The axolotl is capable of spawning five or six 

 times a year, and produces each time from 150 to 200 young. A dim 

 light is better for the maintaining of axolotls than a bright light, which 

 they dislike. 



I have some individuals in which the branchine are altogether ab- 

 sorbed; they have thus passed into the Amhlystoma state and respire 

 entirely by the lungs {poumons), I have never been able to secure re- 

 production under this last condition. 



I feed my axolotls with earth-worms; they are fond of tadpoles also; 

 in the absence of these things I frequently give them calf liver, pre- 

 senting it to them in small morsels by the aid of a piece of wood. 



The axolotl in its normal state is black ; the albino is a variety which 

 I have obtained among the spawnings of the former, and which became 

 permanent and fertile like the black form. 



UESCKIPTIOIV OF A IVEW SPECIKS OF ITRAXIDFA (URAP^IDBA POI.- 

 L.ICAJRSS) FROM 1.AISE iWICHIGAIM. 



By DAVID S. JOKDAIV amd €1IAKL£S H. OILBERT. 



Uranidea poUicaris sp. uov. (296(33. ) 



Body robust ; nape prominent, the profile of head steeply declined, 

 thence to tip of snout in a straight or slightly concave line ; head much 

 depressed, broad and flat above, evenly narrowed forwards to tlie 

 broad, much depressed, bluntly-rounded snout; eyes small, with ex- 

 tensive vertical range, their diameter less than snout or than the flat 

 iuterorbital width ; mouth rather small, anterior, with but little lateral 

 cleft ; maxillary reaching vertical from front of orbit ; teeth villiform 

 on jaws and vomer, none on palatines ; i>i"eopercular si)ine large and 

 strong, spirally curved upwards and inwards, wholly invested with 

 membrane ; a single, sharp, concealed spinous point below angle of pre- 

 opercle ; isthmus broad, without fold, its width equaling distance from 

 snout to middle of pupil. 



Spinous dorsal rather low, nearly uniform in height, connected with 

 second dorsal by a low membrane; longest spine equaling length of 

 snout ; soft dorsal long, and its longest ray 2} in head ; origin of anal 

 fin under third dorsal ray, its last ray under sixteenth of dorsal ; high- 

 est anal ray 2^ in head ; ventrals I, 4, reaching two-thirds distance to 

 vent ; pectoral rays all simple, unbranched, the longest reaching verti- 

 cal from vent, and contained 1^^ times in head. Vent equidistant be- 

 tween tip of snout and base of caudal fin. 



Skin everywhere smooth. 



Head 3f in length to base of caudal ; depth 4| ; eye 5^ in head. 



