448 Literatur. 



male does is to execute the most lively antics in front of the female 

 and to occasionally hit her with liis snout or rub himself against her 

 to entice her to respond to his advances, — a sight often witnessed by 

 all who have kept Newts in an aquarium. But a certain number of 

 tailed Batrachians are now known to spend a longer or shorter part of 

 the breeding season in sexual embrace : the Land Salamanders {Sala- 

 mandra), the American Newt (Molge viridescens) , the Pleurodele (Jf. 

 waltlii) and its Algerian allies {M. poireü and M. hagenmuelleri), and 

 the so-called Euprocti [M. aspera, M. montana , M. rusconii). The 

 mode of amplexus varies considerably according to the species, as we 

 shall see further on , and the males of some are provided with black 

 nuptial excrescences on the inner or upper surface of either the fore 

 or the bind limbs, such as are well known in many tailless Batrachians. 

 These temporary warts were first accurately described in Molge viri- 

 descens by Bkaun (6), and I must on this occasion point out that Jor- 

 dan's remark (14, p. 264) to the eifect that they "grow yellow and soft 

 and loose their distinctive character soon after the breeding season 

 is past" , is inaccurate: the black asperities do not "grow yellow and 

 soft" , but are simply shed, as in other Batrachians. It was very na- 

 tural to infer a priori that in such forms the fecundation must take 

 place by an apposition of the cloacas, or even by intromission, and the 

 cloaca of the female receive the spermatozoa direct from that of the 

 male. That such is however not the case in the American species has 

 now been shown by Zeller (31) and Jordan (14). After having held 

 the female tightly round the neck or at the axils by means of his un- 

 usually strong bind limbs , until he has reached the climax of excite- 

 ment , the male , after a few bendings of his body from side to side, 

 leaves the female in order to deposit his spermatophores in front of her, 

 exactly as in the ordinary Newts. 



But how does our information stand with regard to the other 

 species? Firstly, the Land Salamanders {Salamandra maculosa and 

 S. atra). The amplexus was first observed , in the beginning of the 

 present Century, by Schreibers (22) in the alpine species {S. atra) ; but 

 the male is incorrectly described as placing himself on the back of the 

 female, who drags him into the water, and the details given are besides 

 not sufficiently precise; and it is clear that Schreibers did not 

 witness the act of fecundation itself, no more than has any one since. 

 The next published Observation is, so far as I am aware, that of Pfitz- 

 NER (18) who, in October 1879, witnessed the pairing of the spotted 

 Salamander, and his account agrees perfectly with the observations made 

 by nie on the 28"' March of the same year and published in 1881 (5); 

 except that, through mistaking the sexes, he falls into the same error 

 as Schreibers, and describes the female as situated under the male and 

 taking the active part in the amplexus In the case recorded by me, 

 a male S. atra caught hold of a female S. maculosa and passed his 

 front limbs over hers, exactly as in Molge waltlii^ rubbing his head 

 and back against her throat and belly, without however attempting any 

 cloacal contact. Quite recently, Zeller (^30), unaware of my previously 



