SEPTEMBER SUNSHINE. 249 



to all appearances, as liappy as any of their longicaudate 

 brethren. ,.- 



My first effort was to determine what animals were 

 given to nipping the caudal appendages of these inof- 

 fensive salamanders. In this endeavor I soon became 

 discouraged ; but such a feeling only increases one's de- 

 sire to know the truth, and I continued to watch. It 

 was not long before I found that these creatures were 

 constantly biting each other's tails ; and this is one rea- 

 son why so many are found with their caudal appen- 

 dages in a mutilated condition. At times an adult sala- 

 mander will completely detach the tail of a half-grown 

 specimen. Subsequently I was fortunate enough to find 

 a meadow mouse with the tail of a dusky triton in its 

 jaws. The frantic efforts to escape on the part of the 

 batrachian resulted in the tail giving way, and the mouse 

 had but a meagre breakfast if this was all he ate. I 

 think, from this fact, that as all rodents are eminently 

 carnivorous, that mice and squirrels are also largely the 

 offenders ; but, to even a greater extent, the amputation 

 of tails may be attributed to the hundreds of turtles 

 which, during the summer, leave the creek, often going 

 far inland to deposit their eggs. The mud turtle, the 

 stinking turtle, the painted and the spotted species, all 

 will seize any salamander that crosses their path ; and, 

 from experiments in an aquarium, I am confident that 

 the quick movements of the salamanders very generally 

 result in their saving their lives, but at the expense of a 

 greater or less portion of their tails. 



And, again, only look at a dusky salamander as he 

 scuttles away from you, and hides under a stone I The 



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