1092 The American Naturalist. [December, 
Pl. XXIII., Fig. 9; and the tail-fin will be found as fully devel- 
oped as in April. It has also the wavy appearance as if it were 
too long for the tail. If the two sexes are placed together a 
typical mating will occur, and the emission of spermatophores 
will occur exactly as described for the spring, or proper breeding 
season (Jordan, ’91). Observing the act of emitting the sperma- 
tophore and its subsequent examination is greatly facilitated by 
using a clean glass jar containing very little vegetation. The 
spermatophore is anchored on the bottom of the glass jar, and 
has the general appearance of a drinking-goblet,—that is, the 
attached part is like the broad base of the goblet,—and this is 
continued into a narrow part, upon the summit of which the 
oblong sperm-mass or sperm-ball (about 2x4 mm.) is attached, 
thus occupying the position of the cup part of the goblet, to con- 
tinue the comparison. At first the sperm-mass is detached from 
the spermatophore with some difficulty, but later much more 
easily. If it is transferred to a watch-glass or a slide and exam- 
ined in water, using preferably dark-ground illumination, the 
sperm-mass will appear like a mass of white ringlets, there being 
hundreds of zoosperms in each ringlet. The motion of the zoo- 
sperm as a whole, and the active waving of the lateral membrane 
or frill, is very vigorous. It was found also that isolated males 
would emit spermatophores, thus making them comparable with 
the European Triton (Gascoe, ’80). 
It is not easy to understand the purpose of this autumnal mat- 
ing, as no eggs were ever found in the oviducts in the autumn, 
and it is not known that ovulution takes place at other times than 
in the spring, or breeding season proper. Judging from what has 
been found concerning European forms, where the eggs laid 
proved fertile although wintered in the aquarium, and not in con- 
tact with the male since its capture, also from the several broods 
of young from the Sa/amanda atra with but a single fertilization, 
it appears probable that the zoosperms are stored in some way by 
the female until the time of ovulation. (See Gascoe, ’80; Fatio, 
’72; Jordan, ’91; Czermak, ’43; V. Siebold, ’58; Zeller, ’90.) 
So far as I know, the presence of the horny toe-tips and thigh 
Tige and the prominent tail-fin have been uniformly described 


