286 ALBERT HAZEN WRIGHT. 



Whether a preliminary courtship similar to that recorded for the 

 spotted newt {Diemyctylus viridescens) obtains with Ainbly stomas 

 has always been problematic. Clarke 1 says his captive "males 

 showed no inclination to clasp the females, but quietly deposited 

 quite large masses of an apparently rather thick liquid, opaque 

 white, on the bottom of the dish in which they are kept." Smith 2 

 remarks that ' ' in Ambly stoma as in axolotl there is evidently no 

 clasping of the female by the male such as occurs in Triton 

 (Dtemycty/iis)." 



Mr. A. A. Allen secured at Buffalo, N. Y., March 29, 1907, 

 five individuals of Amblystoma jeffersonianum. Upon returning 

 from his collecting trip he put them into a receptacle and im- 

 mediately the smallest one {0) embraced another ( 9) exactly after 

 the manner of the spotted newt. At Ithaca, April 2, after he 

 had transferred them to a larger aquarium jar the same individual 

 repeated the performance. The embrace was continued for some- 

 time. Neither eggs nor spermatophores were subsequently laid, 

 yet the fact is significant. 



Of the intervals that exist between the first spermatophores 

 deposited and the first eggs laid Professor Andrews 3 has noted 

 that " 24 hours or so " may intervene. Upon this point 

 the following data may be of interest: in 1903, one interval 

 ' of 2 days was recorded ; in 1904, one of 4 days ; in 1906, one 

 of 6 days ;in 1907, 4 days in one pond, 5 in another, and 7 

 in a third. 



Egg-laying generally begins about the first of April. In two 

 or three of the last eight years eggs have been noted before that 

 date. In this period the earliest record is March 20, 1903. In 

 1 90 1 they did not begin depositing eggs until after the middle 

 of April. The egg-laying for the species may extend over a 

 month or more. Rarely do we find fresh eggs after May 1. In 

 1907, our latest record for fresh eggs is April 30; our latest 

 record for fresh spermatophores in the same pond, April 27. 



1 Clarke, S. F., " Development of Amblystoma punctattitn, Studies from Biol. Lab- 

 of Johns Hopkins Univ., No. II., 1880, p. 106. 



2 Smith, B. G. , " The Breeding Habits of Amblystoma punctatumlArm.,'" Ameri. 

 can Naturalist, XLL, No. 486, June, 1907, p. 388. 



3 Andrews, E. A., " Breeding Habits of the Spotted Salamander (Amblystoma punc- 

 tatuf/i)," American Naturalist, Vol. 31, p. 636. 



