160 THE HAUNTS OF LIFE 



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 salamander, therefore, 

 does not go through a tadpole 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 many as seventy tadpoles in a 



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

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



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 creatures. 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. 



