74 NATURE'S CALENDAR 



April 20 after hatching,' when they assume adult 

 form with its iridescent coloration, gen- 

 erally entering the water." — {Sherwood. 

 Proc. Linn. Soc. of N. V.. 1895.) The 

 eggs of this newt number eight or ten 

 and are laid separately, in the course of 

 about four days, each in an adhesive en- 

 velope which sticks firmly between the 

 folded edges of a leaf or between two 

 leaves of some water-plant, which are 

 pinched together between the hind legs 

 of the female as she labors to extrude the 

 egg. This happens only in warm spring- 

 fed ponds so early as this, the newts in 

 the colder waters of lakes deferring the 

 oviposition until June or later. 



Some other salamanders are breeding at 

 this season, when eggs of both the marbled 

 and the spotted salamanders may be got 

 in swamp-pools and still ponds, and the 

 parents remain near by. The spawning 

 habits and larval growth of the latter are 

 a fair type of the ^^xow^^Ajublystoina). Her 

 eggs are hollow spheres, about a quarter 

 of an inch in diameter, embedded or com- 

 bined in a large mass of perfectly trans- 

 parent jelly. Within each sphere is a 

 dark yolk, which in the course of some 

 days becomes considerably elongated, and 

 exhibits signs of animation which in a 

 few days result in the birth of a young 

 salamander, which struggles out of the 

 egg-envelope. " At this time," says Cope, 

 " it is about half an inch in length, and 

 consists simply of head, body, and tail, 



