316 Observations on Amphiuma. 
This assumption has been made in the case of Amphiuma. On 
general principles, Cuvier concluded that in early life it has gills. 
This was uncertain, and has been denied. Later authorities, among 
them Professor Huxley, state that its gills are “caducous,” but that 
this conclusion rests on any one’s observations T am not aware. Of 
its other habits little seems to be known. Holbrook, in his great 
work on North American Reptiles, thus speaks of the species :— 
“Amphiuma means lives in muddy water or in mud. Harlan 
says they have been found at Pensacola three feet or more deep in 
mud of the consistency of mortar, in which they burrow like earth- 
worms. They inhabit the ditches of our rice-fields, and feed on 
small fish and various fresh-water shells, as Unio, etc.; beetles and 
other insects have also been found in their stomachs. Sometimes, 
like eels, they are found on dry land, but for what purpose they 
approach it is unknown” (N. A. Herp., 1842, v., 91). 
“T am unacquainted with the habits of the Amphiuma tridacty- 
lum, but suppose these to he similar to those of the Amphiuma 
means” (Ibid., 93). 
At the close of August, 1887, I spent a few days in Little Rock, 
Ark., in the employ of Dr. Branner, of the Arkansas Geological 
Survey. On September 1st I visited a cypress swamp in the vicin- 
ity of the city for the purpose of collecting some reptiles. During 
the severe summer drought this swamp had been almost completely 
dried up, and there was little chance to get anything except by 
turning over pieces of fallen timber. Beneath a log of consider- 
able size I found, to my surprise, a large animal coiled up, which 
by its smooth glistening skin I immediately saw could not be a 
snake ; but, having never before seen a living Amphiuma, it took 
me some time to realize that I had before me one of these animals. 
After making due preparations to prevent its escape, I gave the 
animal a push with a stout stick, and then, no attempt at retreat 
being made, I lifted it out of the slight depression in which it was — 
lying and let it straighten itself out. Meanwhile I had observed, 
lying in the midst of the coils, a mass of moist-looking matter, 
nearly as large as one’s fist. Picking this up, I discovered it to be 
a mass of eggs. This was put into a jar of alcohol, and imme- 
diately the young within the egg could be seen writhing about, thus 
showing that they were in an advanced stage of development. The 
mother offered no resistance on being handled, and was put into 4 
