CRIMSON SPOTTED TRITON. 731 



Triton milUpunotatua, DeKay. 



Triton doraalia, Haix. 



Triton aymmetncus, pmotatiaaimua, et doraalia, Dumbeu, and Bibron. 



Color varying from olive to scarlet above, from orange to red beneath, the 

 two colors abruptly separated ; sides with five or more ooellate spots, often 

 arranged in a line and sometimes with other similar but smaller spots lower 

 down ; entire under surface punctate with black dots, which sometimes 

 cover the back and tail as well ; head oval ; muzzle rounded at the apex ; 

 commissure of the mouth not extending behind the posterior cauthus of the 

 eye ; gular and postorbital folds wanting ; costal grooves about fourteen, 



to^tlidlmu's iadistinot ; back usually with a dorsal crest ; tail strongly oariuated above 



mS'^"en *°"^ Ijelow. Length, 3J inches ; tail. If inches ; head to axilla, i inch ; 



breadth of head, i inches. 



Habitat, Canada, Maine, Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, Pennsyl- 

 vania, Georgia, Florida, Illinois, Ohio and Michigan. ^ 



The Crimson Triton is found under stones, and decayed wood and 

 leaves, and also in brooks and pools. Holbrook observed them swimming 

 with vivacity under ice an inch thick. Storer found fragments of 

 Lymnea, Physa, insects, and spiders in their stomachs, and also ascertained 

 that they cast their skin in June, and that the new cuticle was in every 

 respect similar to the old. They are not so rapid in their motions as 

 Plethodon erythronotus. In confinement they throve well if allowed a 

 daily supply of fresh water and a sufficient quantity of flies, which they 

 seized by a sudden spring, and swallowed apparently by several con- 

 tinued efibrts. Their eggs are laid attached to weeds and grass in shallow 

 water, in albuminous masses, looking somewhat like those of frogs, and 

 the young does not lose its branchiae until late in development. 



Mr. Howard A. Kelly* relates that he has taken the "Red Eft," 

 Notophthalmus miniatus, found in SuUivant Connty, Pennsylvania, 

 and kept them in a dark box filled with moss and saturated with 

 water ; and that all the specimens thus treated changed from the ver- 

 milion of the miniatus to the dull or olive of the Notophthalmus viridescens, 

 that upon being thrown into water they struggled to land, but soon 

 returned to the water, coming to the surface at intervals for air. They 

 were kept for sometime and always appeared satisfied with their aquatic 

 residence. Such an observation would seem to indicate that instead of 

 specific or even varietal difierences in this species, we have simply the 

 changes due to age and condition. 



*Am. Naturalist, Vol. xii, p. 399. 



