SALAMANDRINAE I 17 



in default of anything better under heaps of stones, or in the 

 holes dug by mice or moles. One chief necessity for its happiness 

 is moisture. 



The salamander does not occur everywhere, but is rather 

 local. On certain kinds of limestone it is rare or absent ; granitic 

 terrain and red sandstone seem to suit it best, for instance the 

 Hartz Mountains, Thuringia, and Heidelberg are favourite 

 localities. But even there we may spend days and weeks and 

 never come across a single specimen. We may turn stones, rake 

 up the moss and leaves, pry into cracks, and we unearth perhaps , 

 a few sorry-looking, listless, dull and dry, half -emaciated creatures. 

 The same place after a thunderstorm will be literally swarming 

 with sleek, lively salamanders, in search of earthworms and all 

 kinds of insects, especially at dusk or during the night. They 

 disappear in the autumn, in October, to hibernate in the ground, 

 out of the reach of frost, and they reappear again in April. 

 Later on they congregate at little springs, always at running 

 water, to reach which they have often to make long migrations. 

 This is the only time when these thoroughly terrestrial creatures 

 approach water, in which they easily get drowned. 



Although this species is so common its mode of reproduction 

 has been satisfactorily discovered only quite recently. There are 

 some puzzling facts which it took a long time to observe correctly 

 and to interpret. The larvae are born in April, May, or June, 

 while there are no eggs in the oviducts, but in July these are 

 full of fertilised eggs before copulation takes place. This seems 

 contradictorj^ The explanation is as follows. In July there is an 

 amplexus of the sexes, short, and often on land — a sort of pre- 

 liminary exciting performance. Both sexes then descend into 

 the water, but generally remain on land with the fore part of 

 the body. The male deposits a spermatophore and the female 

 takes part of this into its cloaca. In the case of a virgin female 

 the eggs are fertilised in the oviduct and ripen until the autumn, 

 but the larvae nearly ready for birth remain within the uterus until 

 the following May, i.e. about ten months. The mother then crawls 

 half into the water, mostly at night, and gives birth to from a 

 few to fifty young, fifteen being perhaps the average. The young 

 are surrounded by the egg-membrane, which either bursts before 

 or shortly after expulsion. This species is consequently viviparous 

 in the proper sense. If she produces a few young only, say from 



