1094 The American Naturalist. {December, 
Necturus and differing from the larve or tadpoles of the mE 
(Rana catesbiana) (Gage, ’85, Gage, S. H. and S. P., ’go). 
During the last half of August the gills begin to be absorbed 
and also the tail fin, and the larva more frequently goes to the 
surface for air. Finally, during the last of August and the first 
of September, the gills and tail fin being nearly absorbed, the larva 
keeps its head out of the water an hour at a time, and finally 
crawls out of the water entirely. 
The larvæ do not, apparently, all transform during the first sum- 
mer, for specimens with gills have been taken from upland ponds 
in November. The size attained by the larvæ before transform- 
ing is quite various. Those observed by me were usually about 
the size shown in the plate (3 to 4 centimeters long); but they 
may become much larger. Indeed, they may remain in the 
branchiate condition till they are as long as some of the adult 
aquatic ones, and two or three times the length of some of the 
red ones found in nature. Large branchiate larve were obtained 
for me by Instructor Pierre A. Fish from a fresh-water pond at 
Wood's Holl, Mass. The tail-fin is small in these large larve, 
and there is no crest extending to the head as in the smaller 
larve. Other unusually large-gilled larve wiil be described by 
Prof. O. P. Hay in the forthcoming report on “The Batrachians 
and Reptiles of Indiana,” soon to appear in the report of the 
Geological Survey of Indiana. 
Terrestrial Life-—In order to keep the young newts alive and 
in health, a large giass dish was taken and a considerable amount 
of moist leaves and rotten wood put into it. This was an attempt 
to imitate nature as nearly as possible. The young newts did 
well, and gradually began to assume a reddish brown color on 
the back instead of the viridescent color (Pl. XXIII., Fig. 4). The 
belly became orange. In fact, it was passing through an almost. 
exact reversal of the transformation of a red into a viridescent 
form. Late in September and during the first half of October the 
appearance was that of a rather dark “red newt..” Specimens of 
the same size found in nature at about the same date showed the 
transformation of the coloration even more strikingly, as it was 
of a lighter red over the whole body. 



