i6o THE HAUNTS OF LIFE 



occur up to a height of 9000 feet, where it is 

 above the region of pools and quiet brooks, 

 and no water is available, except the cold, 

 swift mountain streams, in which tadpoles 

 could not live or find food. The black sala- 

 mander, therefore, does not go through a tad- 

 pole stage at all; the young are miniature 

 copies of the parent at birth. Moreover, there 

 are never more than two of them, while the 

 salamander of the plains may produce as 



FIG. 16. THE SPOTTED SALAMANDER (SALAMANDRA MACULOSA). 

 From a Specimen. The Natural Size is about 5 inches. 



many as seventy tadpoles in a season. For 

 the pools of the plains are full of hungry little 

 fishes, newts, water-beetles, and their greedy 

 larvae, and a hundred other carnivorous crea- 

 tures. So there must be tadpoles enough to 

 ensure that some at least will survive and 

 carry on the race. The mountain salamander, 

 born fully formed, and able, like its parent, 

 to hide among damp leaves and in holes in the 

 ground, has not nearly so many risks to run. 



