28- C0PE1A 



3. Thamnophis sauritus proximo, (Say). West- 

 ern Ribbon Snake. One specimen, 500 mm. in length 

 was obtained on April 3, 1916, near the head of North 

 Spring river. 



4. Chrysemys bellii (Gray). Bell's Painted 

 Turtle. Two specimens were caught in a drag seine 

 at the head of North Spring river. Several other 

 turtles, evidently belonging to this species, were seen 

 in the lake-like enlargement of North Spring river, 

 near Roswell. 



Max M. Ellis, 

 Boulder, Colorado. 



THE BREEDING HABITS OF AMBY- 

 STOMA OPACUM (GBAVENHORST). 



The first account of the breeding habits of the 

 marbled salamander is a letter from the Rev. Charles 

 Mann to S. F. Baird, in which he states that at 

 Gloucester Court, House, Va., they are found with 

 eggs in the "beds of small ponds in the woods," from 

 the summer to December, in which month he found 

 one in a nest with 108 eggs. Apparently some of 

 the eggs were broken, as he speaks of newly hatched 

 young. This letter appears in the Report of the 

 Smithsonian Institution for 18.54, pp. 294-5. 



In 1886, in the first Bulletin of the American 

 Museum of Natural History, Col. Nicholas Pike 

 gives an account of the breeding habits on Long Is- 

 land. He accuses Mann of misidentirication, 

 (Mann's specimens are still in the IT. S. N. M. and 

 are opacum), and claims that A. opacum breeds in 

 the spring, laying eggs in the water as does A. macu- 

 latum. lie got larvae % inch long in March. A 

 mass of eggs hatched 15 days after taking, and trans- 

 formed about July 29, at a length of 2% inches. He 

 also got some May larvae 3% inches long. 



In the light of the many following observations, 

 all of which support Mann, there is little doubt but 

 that Pike was in some error. The May larvae were 



