COMMON FROGS AND SALAMANDERS 301 



two marbles together twenty or thirty times, at first slowly, then 

 rapidly. It inhabits the weeds, the tall grass, and bushes of 

 muddy shores. No good account is given of its foods, breeding 

 season, or habits. 



Both the time and place of spawning for most of our 

 species of frogs and toads is best indicated by their music. 



SALAMANDERS, Urodela. Smooth, elongated bodies ; four limbs ; 

 long tails ; no external gills when adult. Sixteen genera and 

 fifty-three American species. 

 Newts, Diemyctyhis viridescens. Color above, olive green, vari- 

 able; a row of black-bordered vermilion spots on eacli side; 

 below,- yellowish dotted with black. The tail is flattened and 

 has finlike expansions of skin above and below. This descrip- 

 tion applies to the adult form of our common newt during the 

 breeding season or while it is in the water. Found under stones 

 and under logs out of the water, this newt (formerly classed as a 

 distinct species, D. miniatus) is vermilion red above, paler or 

 yellowish below; spots arranged as in the breeding form; tail 

 fins absent. As these newts have been kept in confinement by 

 a number of different people and have been observed to change 

 from one form to the other under varied conditions, there can be 

 no further doubt that they are one and the same species, the 

 different forms and colors depending possibly on condition of 

 maturity or on seasonal changes. The red form should be kept 

 in a damp, mossy vivarium with a pool or dish of water sunk 

 level with the ground at one end. The green form may be kept 

 in an ordinary aquarium, covered to prevent its escape, and pro- 

 vided with floats of bark or cork, upon which it may rest. Both 

 forms may be fed on worms or insects or small bits of raw meat. 

 Valuable feeding tests may thus be made, since we know very 

 little of the newt's feeding habits. It is especially instructive to 

 see them eat mosquitoes and mosquito wrigglers in the water. 

 The egg-laying season extends from April to July, and the eggs 

 are laid singly, securely glued to and hidden within little tufts 

 of aquatic leaves which the female carefully draws together 



