SONGLESS BATRAOHIANS. 55 



the damp places of the woods where decaying leaves 

 and tree trunks are plenty, particularly those of the 

 hemlock. Professor Cope says he never saw one in 

 the water of streams and river banks. 



Besmognathus nigra, another allied species, is a 

 black salamander about six and a half inches long, 

 which is found in the Alleghany Mountains from 

 Pennsylvania southward. It is particularly common 

 in Virginia. This creature is aquatic, and, like Des- 

 mognathus fusca, inhabits only shallow stony brooks 

 and cold springs in the remote parts of the mountains 

 which afford cool and shady retreats. 



I am wholly unable to account for the paragraph 

 which I have quoted on a previous page from Cope's 

 Batrachia of North America. The professor makes 

 no further remark about the Desmognathus possess- 

 ing a whistle. I certainly know two of the species of 

 this genus well, but I am not aware that either pos- 

 sesses a voice. Years ago I used to spend hours 

 hunting through the brooks of New Jersey and New 

 Hampshire for salamanders, and these I carried to 

 my home in the city by the dozen — that was my boy- 

 ish pleasure ; but never have I heard one whistle. 

 The creatures were apparently voiceless. It seems 

 as though after twenty years of acquaintance with 

 them I ought to have heard one sing; but I have 

 not, and I shall leave it now for my readers to dis- 



