THE BATRACHIA OF KORTH AMERICA. 175 



parent niedinm with the brilliancy of a straugo exotic, rather than the 

 pallor of a dweller ia the chilly depths aud dark recesses of a cave. 

 They walk deliberately, and swim with some activity, moving, as do 

 other salamanders, with the limbs pressed to the sides and the body 

 and tail imdulatiug laterally. Their movements are not so active as 

 those of some other species. They are very harmless and, though I 

 have handled a great number of them, have never seen them attempt 

 to bite. Their food consists of insects. 



Varieties. — Occasionally a specimen is found which is of a uniform 

 grayish-brown. Dr. E. E. Gait sent me such a one from Staten Island, 

 New York. Two forms have been distinguished by Professor Baird 

 which may rank as subspecies : the S. ruber sticticcps and the S. ruber 

 montanus. They are described below. 



The manner in which the characters which distinguish these sub- 

 species are found singly in various individuals illustrates well the con- 

 dition of a protean species. Thus of the specimens with sixteen costal 

 plicae referable to S. r. montanus, where the width of the head may 

 be one-sixth the length to the groin, two specimens measure the same', 

 G^ and 6| in the same, and another Gf, and another (3848) 7 times. In 

 one the posterior part of the paraspheuoidal patch is widened, as in the 

 usual form. In two specimens (3870-7031) the sixteenth plica falls over 

 the femur and does not descend before it; the vomerine series of both 

 are angulated. In 7031a, from the same locality as 7031, all the char- 

 acters are those typical of >S'. r. montanus. 



In two specimens having the head and coloration of var. Ruber, from 

 Eutaw, Ala., one has fifteen plicae and angulate teeth, the other sixteen 

 plicae aud curved series of teeth. In a number of 8. r. ruber from Ab- 

 beville, S. 0., one has sixteen plicae. In this variety the width of the 

 head enters the length to groin usually five times, but varies to 5^, 5f, 

 and in 7023, G^ times. 



In the type of P.flavissimus, this relation is 1 to G^, with but fifteen 

 plicae; the truncation of the muzzle is less than described, and there 

 are no cirri. In var. Sticticeps a trace of the same is visible. The 

 peculiar coarse and sparse spotting in this var. and in S. r. montanus 

 is seen in Euber No. 7073 (half grown). 



The uniform color of -S'. r. sticticejjs is nearly equaled by No. 7033, aud 

 the white punctulation of the lips by 7073 (large), though none are simi- 

 lar in the punctulation of the front ; in 1840, from Eutaw, Ala., the ab- 

 domen and gular region are similarly punctulate. 



As regards the size of the eyes in P.Jtavissimus, their longitudinal 

 diameter measures 1.5 the width between their anterior canthi. These 

 specimens are both small. lu several small var. Euber the measurement 

 is the same, and in the smaller of the S. r. sticticeps ; in the larger of the 

 latter and of Euber this measurement is as 1 : 2. Nevertheless, in a num- 

 ber of var. Euber which have just completed their metamorphosis the 

 proportion of front to eye is also 2 : 1 (No. 3849). 



