136 NATURE-STUDY REVIEW [15:4— Apr., 1919. 



Right in the topmost tuft is one egg just Hke the rest, but it is 

 the one we are interested in. It is about the size of a small pea, a 

 little sticky so that the leaves as they were pressed against it 

 almost hid it. The outside is tough like India rubber, but clear as 

 glass. Inside can be seen a little yellowish ball. 



Mother and father do not heed the egg, but the sunshine of 

 May falls about it and broods it, the bubbling water bathes it, the 

 leafy cradle rocks it, while each watchful day sees in it some wonder- 

 ful change. Little knobs and ridges and hollows appear on the 

 yellowish ball, and soon knobs and ridges and hollows can be called 

 brain and eyes and gills and tail. 



In less than thirty days the little ball begins to shake and quiver, 

 for in it a little fellow is actually trying to swim, in a place no bigger 

 than a drop of dew. There he stays and strives until all the little 

 yellow ball has been taken into the little living body for it is to 

 him both meat and drink. After that is gone and he can endure it 

 no longer, out he bursts from the home which has become so small 

 as to be a prison. Eyes are for seeing the world, so forth he goes to 

 a free life, no longer hidden by a few needle-like leaves. 



A hungry stomach soon calls for all the energy the 

 little fellow has ; it is not many hours before he finds 

 food and can provide for himself most bountifully 

 from the tiny living things that swarm about the 

 water plants. Just think of it ! He is no longer nor 

 larger than this — , yet he hunts and fishes and swims. 

 Except for his beautiful, spreading red gills when he 

 is at rest he might be a needle so straight and 

 c j' J motionless is he. But the quiver of a leaf sends him 

 Tad pole darting away as though shot from a bow, so shy is 



2. Salamander -^^ ^^^^ ^le needs to be shy, for freedom has multi- 

 eggs ■^ ' 

 plied his dangers. 



Larger and larger he grows. There are stripes on his sides, just 

 plain grayish stripes; but as the days go by bright red specks begin 

 to show on his back, one on each side, two on each side, until at last 

 we know this is really the hero of our story. Red-spot, and not some 

 tiny changeling who has been trying to impose on us! Now he 

 begins to be prettier, his coat is greenish, his vest buff, and except 

 for his gills he looks quite like his father. 



His little active body gets so hungry for air as well as food, that 

 his gills, three on each side, like a bunch of cardinal ostrich plvimes, 



