T/ic Transformation of the Mexican Axotott. 629 



this, and of the other species of Mexican Axolotls. 

 Unfortunately this gentleman can, it would appear, 

 have seen only the French publications upon 

 the transformation of the Axolotl, and could not 

 therefore have asked himself questions arising 

 from my conception of the facts; otherwise many 

 of his observations would have led to more definite 

 results. The above conclusion can however be 

 still further supported by Senor Velasco's data. 



One might indeed insist that with us also the 

 land-salamanders conceal themselves in moist 

 places during dry weather, and often lie hidden, 

 as in Mexico, in a hole, in a cluster of as many as 

 ten together ; but with us they leave their lurking- 

 place from time to time and go in search of food. 

 Senor Velasco mentions nothing with respect to 

 this. What especially struck me was the state- 

 ment that the Mexican Amblystomas were also to 

 be found in the "water" When Lake Santa Isabel 



" [Prof. Semper also remarks (" Animal Life," note 47, p. 

 430) with reference to the Axolotl of Lake Como in the Rocky 

 Mountains, which he states always becomes transformed into 

 Amblystoma Mavortium, that this metamorphosis " takes place 

 in the water, and the Amblystomas, so long as they are little, 

 actually live exclusively in the water, as I know by my own 

 experience. A young Amblystoma which I kept alive for a 

 long time, never went out of the water of its own free will, 

 while one nearly twice as large lives entirely on land and only 

 takes a bath now and then. It always goes into the water when 

 the temperature of the air in the cellar, in which my aquaria 

 stand, falls below that of the water down to about 6 or 8 C." 

 This statement appears to suggest that the effect of tempera- 



