REPORT OF THE DIRECTOR I918 259 



the eggs of Hemidactylium without disturbing their position some- 

 what in removing the covering of moss, but in general it may be 

 stated that they are disposed in a mass and are stuck firmly together 

 and to rootlets, and stems of moss (plate 4, figures 1-3). 



The first lot of eggs found (May 14th) contained ninety, but 

 were probably the complements of two females as a second was seen 

 but not captured. Subsequent observations on the number of eggs 

 deposited strengthen this conjecture. On May 27th A. H. Wright 

 and the writer again visited the bogs, and other specimens were 

 found in like situations within a few feet of the former. At this 

 time, a female and her eggs, about fifty, and a female without eggs 

 were taken. A third specimen was left as found partly coiled about 

 her eggs. On June 30th A. H. Wright found that this female and 

 her brood had departed. On May 27th Henry Dietrich of Cornell 

 University, while collecting at the Ringwood bogs near Etna, N. Y., 

 found one adult and two half-grown four-toed salamanders in the 

 moss near water. One week before two adults were taken by him 

 in the same place. 



As the first female taken, confined too closely, failed to survive 

 transportation from McLean to Ithaca, the unattached female taken 

 May 27th was placed with the original lot of eggs which she soon 

 appropriated and coiled about. 



Other parts of the margin of Mud pond were explored May 30th 

 and nine more egg masses found, in each case as before, within 

 6 inches of the water and attended by the female. In one side 

 of a small clump of sphagnum were four females and a total of 

 204 eggs; the egg masses were not distinctly separated, in fact so 

 close that it was impossible to confine each female to her own. 

 Other specimens were noted with eggs in clusters of 22 to 64. 



Whether fertilization of the eggs takes place in the fall or spring 

 is not known. The spermathecae of Hemidactyliiam were not 

 examined by Kingsbury ('96) when he made his comparative study 

 of these organs in several species of salamanders. In seeking an 

 answer to this question several dissections were made and the follow- 

 ing conditions noted: In all females examined ovarian eggs were 

 found in various stages of development. A single ovary from each 

 of several specimens, taken May 30th and killed June loth, 

 contained from 90 to 100 eggs varying in size from almost microscopic 

 to .5 mm in diameter. The larger eggs were unpigmented, white 

 and opaque; the smaller, clear with an opaque center and confined 

 to the center of the mass. The condition of some of these eggs 

 might be considered evidence that mating takes place in the spring ; 

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