15 BERTRAM G. SMITH. 



dence upon which this conclusion was based was afforded by the 

 usual experiment of isolating a ripe female ; an hour afterwards 

 a few fertilized eggs were found, although their deposition was 

 not directly observed. It was not known at the time that the 

 female, as well as the male, devours the eggs of its own kind ; 

 moreover, the possibility of the regurgitation of the eggs, and 

 their subsequent development, did not occur to me ; yet this is 

 undoubtedly what happened. The female Cryptobranchus is a 

 voracious eater of the eggs of her own kind ; digestion is very 

 slow, and if the animal soon after eating fertilized eggs, is placed 

 in quiet water, the eggs will be regurgitated without injury, and 

 have been observed to continue their development. The number 

 of eggs found on September 6, 1905, was rather large (estimated 

 at about 80) to have been contained in the stomach at one time ; 

 but the female was an unusually large specimen, and the eggs 

 must have been devoured before the inflation of their envelopes ; 

 hence the feat was quite possible. The evidence for internal fer- 

 tilization cited above must be regarded as of no value. 



The study of the breeding habits was begun with the expectation 

 of finding spermatophores, such as are known to be deposited by 

 Triton viridescens (Jordan, '91 and '93) and many other Urodeles 

 (Wiedersheim, '00). Had such spermatophores existed it is quite 

 probable that I should have recognized them through familiarity 

 with spermatophores of Triton viridescens, deposited in aquaria, and 

 observations (Smith, '07) on the spermatophores oi Ambly stoma 

 studied in the field ; yet, although strings of mucus containing 

 spermatozoa were found floating in the water attached to rocks 

 in localities where Cryptobranchus abounds, no spermatophores 

 were found. The search for them was persistent and thorough, 

 both under rocks and in the open, and in creek aquaria where 

 the animals were breeding in large numbers ; yet always with the 

 same negative results. 



Laboratory studies were conducted to shed light upon the 

 process of fertilization. Eggs taken from ripe females uniformly 

 failed to develop ; no spermatozoa were found, either in the cloaca 

 of the female or in eggs taken from the uterus. Females in the 

 act of laying eggs were seized and some of the remaining eggs 

 stripped from the cloaca ; no spermatozoa could be found in them 



