352 Illinois State Ldboratory of Nutural Itistovii. 



possess of suiting their color to the surface they rest upon, 

 makes their capture difficult. They pass the winter in hollow 

 trees and logs. The food consists of insects ; ants, moths, 

 and Coleoptera (click beetles, etc.) being found in their 

 stomachs. A small specimen from southern Illinois, taken on 

 blackberry leaves, had stuffed its stomach with numbers of a 

 small ant, Cremastog aster lineolata. 



The '^ mummified frog" referred to by Dr. R. W. Shufeldt 

 in "Science," Vol. YIIL, p. 279, obtained from a lump of coal 

 in Bloomiagton, McLean county, Illinois (Shufeldt writes it 

 McLean Co., Penu., and later corrects to Burlington, 111.), was 

 examined at the Illinois Laboratory soon after it was found. 

 It was beyond doubt a dried up example of this species which, 

 by some accident, had got among the coal. 



ORDER URODELA. 

 (Amphibia Caudata, Icthyomorpha, etc.) 



Body elongated and more or less cylindrical. Anterior and 

 posterior legs of nearly equal size (posterior pair wanting in 

 the family Sirenidiy). Digits varying as follows: 2-'i, :>-2, 3-3, 

 4-4, or 4-5, the last combination being the commonest. Man- 

 dible generally with teeth (wanting in the Sirenida^). Adults 

 with tails. Vertebral column composed of many vertebnv, 

 with no terminal solid coccyx. Sternal arch not complete, the 

 clavicles and coracoids not meeting at the ventral median line. 

 Radius and ulna not fused. Tibia and fibula sef)arate. Proxi- 

 mal tarsal bones not elongate nor fused at their e.x'tremities. 



The adults are known as tritons, salamanders, and mud- 

 puppies. They move on the land by walking or running, and 

 swim in the water by an undulating movement of the tail and 

 body. The food consists of insects, Crustacea, and mollusks. 

 The young are generally tadpoles, living in the water and re- 

 spiring by means of branchiai (a few never enter the water at 

 any age). They possess teeth like those of the adults and feed 

 mainly upon animal food, Entomostraca, Hranchiopoda, and 

 Cladocera often constituting the greater part of it. They may 

 be known from the tadpoles of the order .\nura, by their more 

 elongate bodies and the absence of horny plates on the jaws. 



