HABITS OF CRYPTOBRANCHUS ALLEGHENIENSIS. 



21 



observed) under a rock, and egg-laying begins in earnest. Dur- 

 ing the remainder of the process of spawning the female lies 

 quite motionless. The male moves to a position alongside and 

 sometimes slightly above the female and overlying the eggs, or 

 sometimes beside them. In this position, he makes swaying 

 lateral and vertical movements of the posterior end of the body, 

 raising and lowering it with his'hind legs, much like a male Triton 

 viridescens depositing a spermatophore, except that in the case 



Fig. 6B. Drawing explanatory of Fig. 6A. The female, in a curved position 

 has her head under a rock ; the male, advancing from under the rock, with his foot 

 on a stone, is not yet in position to fertilize the eggs. 



of Cryptobranchus the motion is less violent. The movements 

 also resemble those of the female preliminary to spawning. 

 While executing these movements the male extrudes from his 

 cloaca a snowy-white ropy or cloudy mass which consists of 

 seminal fluid mixed with the secretion of the cloacal glands. 

 On one occasion the deposit occurred in ropy chunks about 4 

 mm. in diameter and 2 or 3 cm. long. The deposit does not 

 necessarily fall directly on the eggs, but sometimes on the ground 

 beside them. Soon after, his own movements or those of other 

 male hellbenders which approach brush the material about until 



