310 



LOWER VERTEBRATES. 



near certain rocks under which he insisted the 'alligators ' stayed), I caught ten large 

 specimens in a single morning, and ten more a few days later. Those taken were of 

 various sizes, measuring from ten to eighteen inches in length. One taken by a friend 

 was twenty-two inches long. Fishermen hereabouts say they have frequently caught 

 hell-benders two feet long. 



" They are remarkably tenacious of life. I carried my specimens six miles in a 

 bag behind me on horseback, under a blazing hot sun, and kept them five weeks in a 

 tub of water without a morsel to eat, and when I came to put them in alcohol they 

 seemed almost as fresh as ever. During their confinement in the tub, two of the 

 females deposited a large amount of spawn. This spawn was something similar to 



.,i-(^ 



lifi^^^s 



Fig. vn. — Protonopsis horrida, hell-bender, 'alligator,' wacer-Uog. 



frog-spawn in its general appearance, but the mass had not the dark colors of the 

 latter. The ova were exuded in strings, and were much farther apart than frog's eggs. 

 They were of a yellow color, while the glutinous mass which connected them had a 

 grayish appearance. The spawn seemed to expand greatly by absorption of water. 

 It lay in the tub among the animals for a week, but was not disturbed by them." 



To the above remarks Mr. Wm. Frear of the University of Lewisburg adds : " The 

 observations on the Protonopsis in your February number call to mind several in- 

 stances of its remarkable vitality which have come under my own observation. One 

 specimen, about eighteen inches in length, which had lain on the ground exposed to a 

 summer sun for forty-eight hours, was brought to tlie museum, and was left lying 

 a day longer before it was placed in alcohol. The day following, desiring to note a 

 few points of structure, I removed it from the alcohol, in which it had been complete- 



