936 Miscellaneous. 
half gone. It took air quite often; and I removed it from the jar 
and placed it in a box with some lake-grass around it to keep it 
moist. It completed the metamorphosis in a few days, I did not 
feed it during this time. While it was in the jar it was well 
fed with flies. The jar was placed upon a table in the telegraph- 
office. The flies at first had to be pushed in front of it with a 
pencil. It finally got to know that tapping the jar with a pencil 
meant a fly, and would rise to the surface immediately and snap at 
whichever it saw first, pencil or fly. It furnished train-men con- 
tinual amusement while here; and they kept it constantly gorged. 
Those that 1 kept well fed in jars and seldom changed the water, 
say once in three days, usually began to show a slight change in 
from two to three weeks, and all of them completed the change into 
the Amblystoma inside of six weeks, while I have had but three 
changes of those kept in the cauf (sixty of them) in three months. 
During that time they have not been fed at all. The Siredon meaxi- 
canus is said to never undergo the transformation in its home; and 
Professor Marsh doubts that it ever makes it here. This doubt I 
can put at rest. They do make the change here, and in large num- 
bers. During the latter part of the month of July and the entire 
month of August, if the day is rainy or misty, they come from the 
lake on to the shore in large numbers, and secrete themselves under 
some piece of wood or rock where they can keep moist. Sometimes 
they venture out in a shower, and the sun catches them before they 
can obtain shelter either in the lake or under cover, and in a few 
minutes kills them. They can be found dried hard anywhere about 
the lake, on the shore, or in the grass. While catching Stredon I 
have seen and caught a number of Amblystoma in the lake with the 
metamorphosis, as far as I could see, as complete as those we find 
half a mile from the lake. They cover the ground by thousands 
during a warm summer rain, coming from every conceivable place 
where they could have found shelter—from under rocks, boards, old 
ties, and out of gopher-holes. I have a cat that eats them greedily. 
She has fished several out of jars on the table, and devoured them 
during the night when there was no one to watch her; and I am 
told by a resident that the numerous skunks that live around the 
lake live principally on them. They are of two colours, a blackish- 
green and a yellowish-green colour. I have had two of the blackish- 
green complete the change in sequence while one of the yellowish- 
green was completing it under the same circumstances of change of 
water and food. I think this will be found to be the result in all 
similar cases. I have caught them in all stages of growth, and in 
all stages of their changes into the Amblystoma state. During the 
months of July and August they lie close to the shore of the lake, 
where it is shallow; but after the first frost they disappear com- 
pletely ; or, at least, I have never been able to find them. I think 
they must bury themselves in the mud at the bottom of the lake, as 
I have stirred up the grass often and have not seen them issue from 
it.—Proceedings of United States’ National Musewm, June 1881, 
p. 120. 
