314 NATURE-STUDY REVIEW [11:7— Oct., 1915 



We were, as I say, but a few moments' walk from home, when I 

 determined to turn over a great, water-logged stump, four or five 

 feet long, which was more than half embedded in a miry spring 

 close to the bank of the stream. As the mud and water flowed in 

 to fill the cavity left by the log as I slowly lifted it up, I thought I 

 saw in it the head of some sort of snake or other; but without 

 waiting for any snap identification, I plunged my free hand into 

 the mire and seized the specimen as it was sinking into the mud. 

 To my great delight it was a grand specimen of the long looked-for 

 Spotted Salamander. It measured no less than seven and a half 

 inches in length ; and next day I made a number of fine negatives 

 of my captive, one of which has been reproduced to illustrate the 

 present article (Fig. 7). At the time of taking this salamander, 

 the earliest spring flowers were just beginning to put in an appear- 

 ance, and among the Skunk's Cabbage {Spathyema Joetida) sho"wn 

 at the center of the picture, with the Rattle-snake plantain to the 

 left {Peramium re pens), the Goody era re pens of Gray. 



This specimen of the Spotted Salamander was only the fifth ever 

 taken in the District of Columbia, three of the other four having 

 been collected by Dr. Edgar A. Meams, of the Army, one of the 

 naturalists who accompanied Colonel Roosevelt on his African 

 Expedition. My specimen is now in an aquarium in my study, 

 with numerous other species; it is somewhat darker and stouter 

 than when first captured, and is a most striking looking representa- 

 tive of its genus. The general color above is a dark lavender, 

 appearing almost black in certain lights ; this color is much paler 

 beneath. A row of round, brilliant orange spots — each of about 

 the size of a very small pea — extend down either side to the end 

 of the tail. There are from nine to ten spots in each row, while 

 others occur on the head. Very fine spots of the same color are 

 on the sides and on the limbs. Bluish-white spots are scattered 

 over the lower parts, and some of these are found to extend up on 

 the sides of the body. 



A good many species of Amblystoma occur in the United States, 

 and the literature referring to them is rather extensive. Prof. St. 

 George Mivart, F.R.S., in his very useful little book " The Common 

 Frog," publishes a wood cut of this Spotted Salamander on page 41, 

 and what he says about these animals is very important and 

 interesting. None of them are in the least harmful, though 

 ignorant people and most boys kill them whenever they come 

 across them in the woods. 



