AMPHIBIANS AND REPTILES OF BEXAE COUNTY 



of grayish lichen growing on the sides." (Cope, Batrachia of 

 North America, p. 102). It would not be an easy matter to 

 improve on the above description of alcoholic specimens, but 

 living examples are black and in many cases the markings are 

 either white or grayish white. Specimens which have been long 

 in alcohol fade to a dull brown. 



This salamander is found in uplands as well as lowlands 

 and on the prairie farms and flats, the heavy spring rains drive 

 many from their underground retreats. It breeds in April, 

 in sloughs, ponds and surface tanks. The larvae are very light 

 in color. The late Louis Garni captured a single specimen in 

 the St. Louis College natatorium near San Antonio and for- 

 warded it to me for identification. It is probably a rare animal 

 in Bexar County. No examples were in the Marnock collection. 



3. Ambystoma texanum (Matthes) Texan Salamander 



Salamandra texana Matthes, Allg. deutsche naturh. 

 Zeitschr. Vol. 2, 1855, p. 266. 



This salamander is still rare in collections. Judging from 

 notes on the recorded specimens, it is rather smaller on the 

 average than microstomum but it resembles that species in many 

 particulars. The color, however, is very different. The upper 

 surfaces are light brown, with a series of small, light spots along 

 the upper part of the sides. In half-grown examples collected 

 by me and now in the Field Museum of Natural History, these 

 spots were yellowish in the living animal. The sides and belly 

 are yellow. Its habits resemble those of the Small-mouthed 

 Salamander to which it is very closely related. It breeds in 

 April, usually in prairie ponds and surface tanks, but on one 

 occasion I found numerous larval specimens in ditches along a 

 railroad track in an overflow district. 



Eleven juvenile specimens from San Antonio, collected by 

 Col. J. D. Graham, are in the United States National Museum. 

 Julius Hurter collected a single adult specimen in the same 

 locality and this is probably in the same institution. 



4. Ambystoma tigrinum (Green) Tiger Salamander 



Salamandra tigrina Green, Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila., Vol. 5, 



1825, p. 116. 

 The tiger salamander is distributed over the greater por- 

 tion of the area of Texas but is most abundant in the western 

 and southwestern sections. East of the Brazos river, it is very 

 locally distributed. It is the largest and most abundant of the 

 three species of Ambystoma that has so far been recorded from 

 Bexar County. Specimens from the western counties sometimes 



