46 



Aquatic JLitt 



hind pair of limbs fully three or four 

 times bigger and thicker than the an- 

 terior pair, as will be appreciated by 

 examining the two reproductions of my 

 photographs illustrating the present ar- 

 ticle. These were taken under water in 

 a small naturalists' aquarium, made es- 

 pecially for the purpose. It is a most 

 useful little affair for that kind of work. 



Figure 2 shows a very peculiar habit 

 of this newt which, in so far as I am 

 aware, has not been thus shown before. 

 From time to time, when a male be- 

 comes excited from any cause, either 

 from being fed or during the breeding 

 season, he will seize a female around the 

 neck with his hind pair of limbs, almost 

 choking her to death with the vigor of 

 his grasp. With his forelimbs he man- 

 ages to steady himself in one way or 

 another, and then comes the strangest 

 part of this performance. He curves 

 his tail forwards and vigorously fans 

 the side of the face of the female be- 

 neath him, first upon one side and then 

 upon the other. At first she seems to 

 resent this sort of treatment, and makes 

 strong efforts to escape the curious way 

 her admirer adopts to express his ap- 

 preciation of her attractions ; but after 

 a bit she remains quietly on the bottom 

 or rests on some plant growth until he 

 has thoroughly convinced her that she 

 is the most lovable creature known to 

 him, when he relaxes his grasp and re- 

 luctantly swims away. I know of no 

 other salamander that practices this 

 rather extraordinary procedure, and it 

 is very well shown here in Figure 2, as 

 I have already stated. 



My water newts are kept with sev- 

 eral specimens of the red-bellied Newt 

 of Japan, an account of which I gave 

 in Aquatic Life for September, 191 6 

 (page 1 ), where five of the latter species 

 are figured in color. 



The New York Show 



The annual autumn exhibition of The 

 Aquarium Society, New York City, was 

 held October 12th to 15th, in The 

 American Museum of Natural History. 

 It was a marked success, and an excep- 

 tionally fine collection of aquarium 

 fishes was shown. 



Mr. A. A. Phillips, Jr., of Brooklyn, 

 entered a splendid lot of goldfish which 

 aroused great admiration, winning two 

 fine silver cups. A cup for goldfish 

 raised during the present year was 

 awarded to Mr. A. Obermiller. 



The tropical fishes were well repre- 

 sented by all the favorites, and some 

 very rare species. The silver cup for 

 the best display of adult tropical fishes 

 went to Mr. Isaac Buchanan; that for 

 young tropical fishes, those bred this 

 year, was awarded to Mr. J. Packer. 



For the best "balanced aquarium," a 

 silver cup was won by Mr. N. Jasper. 



In addition to the many beautiful 

 gold and tropical fishes, many species 

 of aquatic plants, reptiles, lizards, 

 daphne and enchytrae were shown. The 

 display of aquarists' accessories by the 

 Aquarium Stock Company, and the 

 "sanitary aquaria and plant containers" 

 shown by Mr. William S. Smith, were 

 of great interest. Mr. Smith was award- 

 ed a special ribbon. 



The fishes were judged and the 

 awards made by Mr. William H. Heim- 

 bach, Mr. Fred H. Geyer and Dr. E. 

 Bade.— C. J. Heede. 



Why it pays to advertise in Aquatic 

 Life. "It may be of interest to you to 

 know that Air. Isaac Buchanan, of New 

 York City, who advertised recently in 

 Aquatic LirE, told me that he was 

 flooded with answers from Maine to 

 California. His fishes were all sold be- 

 fore I reached him." — Lester B. Wines. 



