620 Lake Maxinkuckee, Physical and Biological Survey 



Shell broadly oval, sometimes four-fifths as broad as long, high, 

 very convex, and extremely solid; plastron large, tightly closing 

 the opening of the carapace, consisting of two lobes movable on 

 each other and the carapace, the bridge entirely obliterated; plas- 

 tron rounded in front and behind ; head of moderate size, the snout 

 not projecting; upper jaw with the cutting edge drawn down in 

 front into a hooked beak, the hook not notched, the alveolar surface 

 narrow ; lower jaw turned upward at the tip ; legs and feet scaly ; 

 claws stout, the web between the toes narrow; tail short. 



Color of carapace yellow, brown and black, sometimes the 

 darker color predominating, sometimes the yellow, ground color 

 usually brown or reddish brown, the yellow appearing as spots of 

 various shapes, often radiating from the point of growth of the 

 scute; the ground color may appear to be yellow relieved with 

 black spots ; plastron variously ornamented with black and yellow. 

 Young with a single yellow spot on each scute of the carapace. 

 Length of carapace 4 to 6 inches in full grown examples. 



THE AMPHIBIANS 



Eighteen species of amphibians are now known from the vicin- 

 ity of Lake Maxinkuckee. These include one waterdog, seven 

 salamanders, one toad, two tree-toads, and seven frogs. 



All of these are of some importance in their relations to the 

 life of the lake, and several of them, such as the water-dog and the 

 various species of frogs, of very considerable importance. Of all 

 the animals inhabiting the lake perhaps the worst enemy of the 

 fishes is the water-dog. And of the vertebrate animals about the 

 lake, exclusive of the fishes themselves, frogs doubtless enter most 

 largely into the menu of the large-mouth black bass. All of the 

 species are more or less aquatic, all being found in or about the 

 water. 



LIST OF SPECIES 



1. WATERDOG 



NECTURUS MACULOSUS (Rafinesque) 



The Waterdog or Mudpuppy is one of the most common, and 

 certainly the most interesting, of the several species of amphibians 

 occurring in or about Lake Maxinkuckee. 



It is strictly aquatic in its habits and is found only in the water. 

 It is found in both Lake Maxinkuckee and in Lost Lake and ap- 

 parently approximately abundant in each. That it was seen more 



