xlii PROCEEDINGS. 



The infatuation of the frog a fine large Green Frog, ( Rana damata) 

 it appeared to be was shown by its always retreating to the water 

 where it remained until closely pursued, when it sprang out in a leap or 

 two to one side where it remained unconscious of any other presence, 

 but very sensitive to the insidious approach of the snake who was so 

 interested in its game that the presence of the slaughterer of its two 

 colleagues was, apparently, a matter of no consequence. Owing to a 

 mistaken observation that the frog had finally escaped and that the hunt 

 was over, the snake was killed, when it was discovered that it was still 

 stalking the frog and would have caught him or have forced him again 

 into the pool. As the hunt continued for several minutes, a great many 

 manoeuvres by land and water were observed. He referred to notes made 

 on the habits of the same species as described in the Transactions of the 

 Institute, Vol. i, part 2, page 120, by J. M. Jones, May 2nd, 1865 ; 

 Vol. iv, page 81, by J. Bernard Gilpin, April, 1875 ; and Vol. iv, page 

 163, by John T. Hellish, May, 1876. 



After discussing the distribution of the Reptillia in the Atlantic 

 Provinces, he gave the appended list which briefly shows all the species 

 known on good authority to be found within the Province of JSTova 

 Scotia. 



He next presented a living specimen of the Newt, ( ' Diemyctylus 

 viridescens), which was examined by the members, swimming in water 

 and moving on the table. It was one of a pair which had come the 

 spring before from a lake in the county of Lunenburg, and the habits 

 of which he had been studying for a year. The other, having been 

 taken for some time with an apparent longing for the wide world 

 beyond the horizon of its tank, which for some days before it was pen- 

 sively gazing at from an island rock, must have made a leap or unusual 

 reach, and escaped never to be seen again. He gave an outline of its 

 history from the minute eggs deposited in spring on small leaves of 

 water plants ; of its growth in the water, until in August or September 

 it gradually changed into a red land salamander, left the water and 

 hunted like a terrestrial animal, with air breathing apparatus and even 

 a ciliated epithelial lining to its air passages. Until lately this stage 

 used to be considered to be a species of salamander. Then, when 

 mature, the " crimson eft " betakes itself to the water, changes its 

 color to an olive green with a row of minute black-bordered vermilion 

 spots on each side of its back. Its breathing apparatus again becomes 

 adapted to the water, even the ciliated epithelia disappearing. The 



