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CRIMSON SPOTTED TRITON. 731 
Triton millepunctatus, DEKay. 
Triton dorsalis, HALL. 
Triton symmetricus, punctatissimus, et dorsalis, DUMERIL and BIBRON. 
Color varying from olive to scarlet above, from orange to red beneath, the 
two colors abruptly separated ; sides with five or more ocellate spots, often 
arranged in a line and sometimes with other similar but smaller spots lower 
down; entire under surface punctate with black dots, which sometimes 
cover the back and tail as well; head oval; muzzle rounded at the apex; 
commissure of the mouth not extending behind the posterior canthus of the 
eye; gular and postorbital folds wanting ; costal grooves about fourteen, 
oe ore indistinct ; back usually with a dorsal crest; tail strongly carinated above 
belt yell and below. Length, 34 inches; tail, 12 inches; head to axilla, 4 inch ; 
breadth of head, + inches. J 
Habitat, Canada, Maine, Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, Pennsyl- - 
vania, Georgia, Florida, Illinois, Ohio and Michigan. 
The Crimson Triton is found under stones, and decayed wood and 
leaves, and also in brooks and pools. Holbrook observed them swimming 
with vivacity under ice an inch thick. Storer found fragments of 
Lymnea, Physa, insects, and spiders in their stomachs, and also ascertained 
that they cast their skin in June, and that the new cuticle was in every 
respect similar to the old. They are not so rapid in their motions as 
Plethodon erythronotus. In confinement they throve well if allowed a 
daily supply of fresh water and a sufficient quantity of flies, which they 
seized by a sudden spring, and swallowed apparently by several con- 
tinued efforts. Their eggs are laid attached to weeds and grass in shallow 
water, in albuminous masses, looking somewhat like those of frogs, and 
the young does not lose its branchiz until late in development. 
Mr. Howard A. Kelly* relates that he has taken the “Red Eft,” 
Notophthalmus miniatus, found in Sullivant Connty, Pennsylvania, 
and kept them in a dark box filled with moss and saturated with 
water ; and that all the speciméns thus treated changed from the ver- 
milion of the miniatus to the dull or olive of the Notophthalmus viridescens, 
that upon being thrown into water they struggled to land, but soon 
returned to the water, coming to the surface at intervals for air. They 
were kept for sometime and always appeared satisfied with their aquatic 
residence. Such an observation would seem to indicate that instead of 
specific or even varietal differences in this species, we have simply the 
changes due to age and condition. 
*Am. Naturalist, Vol. xii, p. 399. 
