No. 393-] . AUTODAX LUGUBRIS HALLOW. 697 
numerous small ovarian ova. The eggs, the author says, were 
in the early stages of segmentation. Unfortunately, this is all 
the information he gives us concerning them, and he tells me 
now that he tried to keep them alive in order to watch their 
development, but that in this he was not successful. 
The specimens upon which our observations have been made 
were found on the grounds of the University of California by 
one of the students. They consisted of an adult female and 
nineteen embryos, all in practically the same stage of develop- 
ment and well advanced. They were found slightly beneath 
the surface of the ground and close under the oversetting base 
of a large palm tree. 
The student who found them stated that he noticed, as he 
was loosening the earth about the roots of the palm, a hole 
which he at first supposed to be a gopher hole, but on removing 
a little of the soil at this point the salamander and her eggs 
were brought to light. He says that on being uncovered and 
disturbed she “squeaked like a mouse.” This sound was one 
of the first things that attracted his attention. This squeak is 
frequently produced by adults when first taken, but rarely while 
they are in confinement. They were on the south side of the 
tree; and as the ground in this palm grove is kept perfectly 
free from other vegetation, and the spot where the animals 
were located receives the full force of the sun’s heat during the 
whole middle portion of the day, it will be readily understood, 
particularly when it is considered that this region had received 
no rain for at least two months, that the place was about as dry 
as it can become. There is a creek bed about fifty meters 
from the tree, but this had been dry for three months at least. 
When brought to the laboratory in a box with some earth, 
the salamander was partly coiled around the eggs, and in this 
position she seemed at first inclined to remain, since she 
returned to the eggs several times after being removed. The 
following morning, however, she had left them and appeared to 
have entirely deserted her charge. As we had arranged her 
new habitation in such fashion as to make the conditions as 
nearly natural as possible, we concluded that it was useless to 
expect the parent to care any longer for her family, so deter- 
