

1891.] The Vermilion-Spotted Newt. 1087 
they would not eat, and died in about a week. I am very sorry 
not to have been able to keep any till they reached the red eft 
stage. Their dying so young makes a break in the chain of 
observed facts that prove the red eft to be a young form of the 
spotted salamander. I believe, but am not able to prove at pres- 
ent, that the young Dzemyctylus viridescens attains its red garb 
the summer it is hatched, remains that color about.a year, then 
gradually becomes duller as it attains full size.” 
In 1886 Col. Nicolas Pike (’86) verified the observation that 
the red ones transform into the viridescent form under certain 
circumstances, and seems inclined to the belief of Hallowell (56) 
and Cope (’59) that changed conditions produce the change in 
coloration: “I have gradually come‘to the conclusion that the 
two are identical. Some years ago I captured quite a number of 
red ones in the Catskill Mountains, brought them home and kept 
them in a box with other salamanders where they could resort to 
water if they chose. For some days they remained hiding under 
wet moss and stones, but finally crept out at night and went into 
the water. . . . In about three months they lost their bright red, 
and in less than a year they were ofthe usual olive of the vrides- 
cens. Another fact, still more decidedly bearing on the lase, is 
that some two-year-old viridescens taken from the ponds and put 
in earth and dead wet leaves in a tub in my garden, without 
water, in a month or so began to lose their green tint and assume 
a dingy brownish hue. . . . When the young leave the water 
the food changes to spiders, insects, earthworms, etc., so 
totally different from the prey of the ponds, and it is most prob- 
able that this is the first cause in the change of color in the little 
Diemyctylus.” 
In 1890 Gage and Norris (’90) kept a bright red oia, 
found in the woods, over the winter in a box of leaves and rotten 
wood with other salamanders. It was of the usual red color in 
the spring; but when opportunity was offered, it entered the 
water, and within twọ weeks had assumed all the characteristics 
of the viridescent form. 
Finally, in the “ Batrachia of North America ” Prof. Cope thus 
summarizes the state of knowledge, as it then existed, with refer- 

