


1891.] The Vermilion-Spotted Newt. 1099 
snapped up quick as a wink, and it is rare that a failure is made. 
A tadpole is also liable to be caught if it attempts to swim by the 
Diemyctylus. In taking earthworms on land there is an attitude 
of the body and curve of the neck strikingly like the restorations 
of some of the ancient saurians seen in works on paleontology. 
Moulting —Both the red and the viridescent forms shed the 
skin at various times throughout the year. There seems to be 
no regular time, as in June, mentioned by some authors. In the 
terrestrial form the exuvium is liable to be much torn, but fre- 
quently I have seen in Cayuga Lake perfect specimens floating in 
the water, and appearing, as one might imagine, like the ghosts 
of their former owners. I have never seen the cast skin rolled 
up and swallowed by the aquatic form; but the terrestrial ones 
pull the exuvium off the tail with the mouth and afterwards swal- 
low it. 
Respiration and Relations to Oral Epithelium—In the begin- 
ning of larval life the respiration is wholly aquatic ; then, as the 
lungs become developed, it gradually changes to a mixed or 
combined respiration—.¢., to a respiration partly aérial and 
partly aquatic. Later, when the larva leaves the water and be- 
comes terrestrial, the respiration becomes wholly aérial. Upon 
transforming to the viridescent form, and reéntering the water, 
the respiration again becomes mixed. 
If one observes a terrestrial Diemyctylus carefully the floor o 
the mouth and pharynx will be seen to sink and rise alternately, and 
many times per minute. The appearance in pharyngeal inspiration 
may be seen in Fig. 10; in expiration, in Figs. 7 and 11. The 
same pharyngeal movements may be seen in a frog or turtle 
On entering the water the Diemyctylus remains under for a con- 
siderable time, and during its submergence the same rhythmical 
s occur, and water instead of air is alter- 
pharyngeal movement 
nately taken into the mouth and expelled, as in the soft-shelled 
turtles; and, as in the soft-shelled turtles, it is believed that it is 
for respiratory purposes (Gage, S Hand SP, 85). It is fur- 
ther believed, from chemical analyses, and from experiments made 
with the respiration of tadpoles and with Ganoid fishes, that 
whenever respiration is thus mixed or combined “the aérial part 



