266 REPTILES AND BATRACHIANS 



According to Bertram Smith, who has given a very full 

 account of the life history and development of this animal, 

 it leads very much the same sort of existence as its Japanese 

 relative, spending the greater part of the day in crevices 

 under large rocks. He says that the cavity used as a dwell- 

 ing-place has the rock for its roof and the bed of the stream 

 for its floor. As a rule ready-made caverns are chosen, 

 which are reached by a natural opening, but the cavity 

 often bears evidence of having been hollowed out by the 

 animal, and is sometimes reached by a single, burrow-like 

 entrance. The Hellbender, as this creature is often called, 

 is very nocturnal, and seldom comes forth in the daytime, 

 except during the breeding season, i. e. August and 

 September. 



Its food consists of fishes and crayfishes ; it will also eat 

 frogs and even its own larvae and young. The epidermis, 

 which is shed at frequent intervals, is invariably eaten, 

 a not uncommon habit among the Urodeles. The 

 breeding season lasts a fortnight, when about four 

 hundred eggs, which form a much-twisted string, are 

 deposited in the caves under the rocks. The male remains 

 with the eggs after fertilization, protecting them from 

 the mother, who would otherwise devour them ; even 

 the male, however, is often tempted, and devours a 

 small number of the eggs, although never the lot. The 

 eggs, kept by Smith at a temperature of about 50°, 

 hatched about six weeks after they had been laid, when 

 the embryos were thirty millimetres long ; six months 

 later they measured forty millimetres. After this period 

 they grew at a much faster rate, and attained a length of 

 six to seven centimetres long in a year. 



