210 BULLETIN 34, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



The color ot the form Viiidesceiis is a light browiiisli-olive above, 

 which is or is uot marked off distinctly from the paler color of the lower 

 surfaces aloug the side. The iuferior surfaces are straw-color or dirty 

 white. Ou each side of the vertebral line is a row of from three to six 

 smad round red spots, each with a black border. The rest of the sur- 

 face is marked with small black points, which are smaller but more dis- 

 tinct on the lower surfaces. On the legs they are larger and more dis- 

 tinct, and ou the tail they appear to liave run like ink spots ou paper 

 placed in water. In specimens without fins they sometimes form two 

 rows on each side of the tail and a line along the side from the axilla to 

 the groin. There is a faint dark line from the eye to the last cheek-pit. 

 Chin and throat generally unspotted. 



In the form Miniatus the tail is narrow, being without dermal borders, 

 The color of the superior surfaces is vermdiou red and the lower sur- 

 faces citron-yellow. The red spots are present as in the other form, but 

 the small black spots are rarely prcseut on the back. They are present 

 on the sides, belly, limbs, and tail, and never run together into lines. 

 In this form the skin of all the upper surfaces is rough, with numerous 

 minute, semitransparent horny points of the skin. These are not devel- 

 oped on the inferior surfaces. 



These characters would be likely to follow the exposure of an aquatic 



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1 



Fig. 53. Diemycti/his minialMS miniatus Tla,f. 3802. T wice natural size. Root River, Wis. 



animal with soft skiu to the comparative drought of the atmosphere. 

 The greater acuteuess and prominence of the cranial crests displayed 

 by the Miniatus form is probably caused by the closer adherence of the 

 thinner integuments under these circumstances. Direct observations 

 as to these points, however, exist. Dr. Hallowell was the first to express 

 his belief that the so-called distinct species were the same. I afterwards 

 remarked, " the nominal D. miniatus is a state of B. viridescens," and that 

 I have had it change to the latter in confinement. Dr. Howard A. Kelly, 

 in an article in the American jSTaturalist, states, he " brought home a 

 number ot I), miniatus (Eaf.), or little red lizard, or red eft, and after 

 keeping them in a dark box filled with saturated moss, they changed 

 their color from a bright vermilion to the olive state characteristic of the 

 D. viridescans,^^ and he kept them all winter. Col. jSTicholas Pike says in 

 the same journal (January, 18SG) : " I have gradually come to the conclu- 

 sion that the two are identical. Some years ago I captured quite a num- 

 ber of red ones in theCatskill Mountains, brought them home, and kept 

 .them in a box with other salamanders, where they could resort to water 



