84 CALIFORNIA ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. [3D Ser., 



everything, or almost nothing, according to the conditions. 

 As already mentioned, its own cast off epidermis is not re- 

 jected as having fulfilled its whole usefulness merely because 

 it can no longer serve as wearing apparel, but it is utilized 

 as food without hesitation. I have found large quantities of 

 it in the animals' stomachs. But the eating of their own 

 skins is not the only way in which they put in practice the 

 doctrine that home products should be consumed as largely 

 as possible. During the breeding period their own eggs 

 and young form an important food staple, particularly, as it 

 seems, for the old males. One often sees one of these fel- 

 lows taxing his ingenuity and mouth capacity to the utter- 

 most in an effort to get a large egg mass whole into his 

 stomach; and his efforts are frequently successful. I have 

 also seen such males pulling to pieces the jelly of bunches 

 in which the embryos were well developed, apparently for 

 the purpose of extracting the little ones ; I must, however, 

 admit that I have never found j^oung larvae freed from the 

 jelly in the stomach of an adult. 



Small snails and slugs, both larvae and adults of numerous 

 species of insects, sow bugs, earth worms, etc., will gen- 

 erally be found in greater or less quantity when an inventory 

 is taken of the contents of a stomach. But although the 

 animals eat heartily when an abundance of food is at hand, 

 and are not very particular as to the kind of food, they can- 

 not, I think, be regarded as particularly voracious. They 

 certainly can endure for months together with very little to 

 eat, and they never, so far as I see, show by their actions 

 any signs of hunger. 



(d) Movements. — In their movements, whether on land or 

 in water, they are very deliberate and clumsy, even for long- 

 tailed amphibians. On occasion they can, particularly in 

 swimming, push themselves along with considerable alac- 

 rity; but they are incapable of the almost lightning-like 

 movements frequently executed by some other salamanders. 



They may almost always be easily captured with the 

 hand. They show little signs of fright, or inclination to 

 flee from a human being. Sometimes, however, apparently 



