HERPETOLOGY OF JAPAN. 9 



Habikit. — The giant salamander of Japan seems to be restricted to 

 the higher altitudes of the island of Hondo west of longitude 137° 30' 

 east of Greenwich. Rein states that it lives in clear running moun- 

 tain streams in the granite and schist ranges, at a height of from 400 to 

 1,000 meters above the sea, while Geerts mentions 200 to 800 meters 

 as its true habitat. According to these two authorities the principal 

 localities where it is found are as follows: 



1. The mountain streams and sources of the Yodogawa and Lake 

 Biwa drainage, especially the tributaries of the Kidzugawa in the 

 provinces of Iga, Yamato, and western Ise. The t}q3e-specimen — 

 which von Siebold brought home alive to the Leiden Museum — was 

 taken in this district, namely, in one of the streams of Sudzaka Yama, 

 the mountain where the boundaries of the three provinces of Ise, Iga, 

 and Omi meet, and Mr. Sasaki, who, in 1880 and 1881, visited this 

 part of Japan in search of this species, obtained all his specimens (71) 

 in Iga, Ise, and Yamato. 



2. The streams of the border mountains between Hida and Mino 

 provinces, especially the sources and tributaries of Rokagawa. Mr. 

 Geerts quotes Keisuke Ito (Nihon Sanbutu wSi, II, p. 39) as authority 

 for the statement that it occurs in the province of Owari, though 

 judging from the maps accessible to me it seems doubtful whether 

 there are any localities high enough in that province. 



3. The streams on the watershed between the districts of Sanindo 

 and Sanyodo. Geerts mentions several streams b}^ name, such as 

 Miyadugawa and Itigawa, in the province of Tamba, Toyokagawa, 

 in Tazima, and Osakigawa in Mimasaku and Harima, while Rein 

 also mentions the province of Iwami. Okada likewise names the 

 province of Iwami, in addition to those of Mimasaku, Tamba, Tajima, 

 Ise, Iga, Mino, and Hida, but upon what authority I do not know. 



Professor Ishikawa, in a lecture given before the German East 

 Asiatic Society in Tokyo, 1900," gives the distribution of the giant 

 salamander as follows: Mountain streams in the lower half of Hondo, 

 i. e., from Mino to Iwami, Nagato, and Suwo. The species is con- 

 sequently to be found in the mountain chain southwest from Mino to 

 Suwo and Nagato, and also in the mountains of Iga and Ise, a branch 

 of the main mountain chain. With regard to the provinces in 

 which it occurs, the following are to be mentioned: Mino, Omi, Iga, 

 Ise, Tamba, Tango, Tajima, Inaba, Mimasaku, Harima, Hoki, Bizen, 

 Bitchu, Bingo, Idzumo, Iwami, Aki, Suwo, and Nagato. It has not 

 been found as jei in Kii nor in Shikoku or Kiusiu. It occurs most 

 frequently, so far as now known, in the mountain streams which 

 come from the famous volcano Daisen, and in the streams on the 

 south side of the Hiruzen Mountains and their neighborhood, espe- 



aMitth. Deutsch. Ges. Ost-Asiens, IX, p. 79. 



