122 SALAMANDRIDE. 



been slight and inconspicuous, becomes more decided. The 

 dorsal crest, which in this species is high and deeply incised, 

 and the superior and inferior membrane of the tail, become 

 developed to a remarkable degree. The male seeks and 

 follows the other sex ; and the tail of the former is vibrated, 

 and, as it were, smacked, by a motion similar to that of 

 smacking a whip, several times during only a few moments. 

 Rusconi asserts, and he has been followed by most subse- 

 quent writers, that impregnation is effected without contact ; 

 but I have reasons, which it is unnecessary for me to detail 

 here, for believing this to be a mistake, at least in some spe- 

 cies. It is sufficient for me to state that those reasons are 

 the result of my own repeated observations. The manner in 

 which the eggs are deposited, is very interesting and curious. 

 The female, selecting some leaf of an aquatic plant, sits, as 

 it were, upon its edge ; and folding it by means of her two 

 hinder feet, deposits a single egg in the duplicature of the 

 folded part of the leaf, which is thereby glued most securely 

 together, and the egg is thus effectually protected from injury. 

 The manner in which this is effected is highly interesting, and 

 may be readily observed by any one, as the animals are suffi- 

 ciently common in many ponds and ditches, and may gene- 

 rally be easily obtained by means of a minnow net. In the 

 neighbourhood of London, especially, they are to be found in 

 numbers every spring,, and I have had no difficulty in procur- 

 ing as many as I wished for the purposes of observation. 



From this facility of obtaining them, the number of eggs 

 which each produces, and the time which is occupied in the 

 act of deposition, it is astonisliing that the mode above de- 

 scribed was never observed until of late years, and that many 

 excellent naturalists have given most erroneous accounts of 

 the process. Spallanzani, for instance, declares that the eggs 

 fall at once to the bottom of the water when deposited ; and 

 Cuvier asserts that they arc produced l)y several at a time. 



