160 THE HAUNTS OF LIFE 
occur up to a height of gooo feet, where it is 
above the region of pools and quiet brooks, 
and no water is available, except the cold, 
swift mountain streams, in which tadpoles 
could not live or find food. The black sala- 
mander, therefore, does not go through a tad- 
pole stage at all; the young are miniature 
copies of the parent at birth. Moreover, there 
are never more than two of them, while the 
salamander of the plains may produce as 
Fic. 16.—TuHe SpotTreD SALAMANDER (SALAMANDRA MACULOSA). 
From a Specimen. The Natural Size is about 5 inches. 
many as seventy tadpoles in a season. For 
the pools of the plains are full of hungry little 
fishes, newts, water-beetles, and their greedy 
larve, and a hundred other carnivorous crea- 
tures. So there must be tadpoles enough to 
ensure that some at least will survive and 
carry on the race. The mountain salamander, 
born fully formed, and able, like its parent, 
to hide among damp leaves and in holes in the 
ground, has not nearly so many risks to run. 
