REPTILES AND AMPHIBIANS 47 



The giant salamander or hellbender best known in t In- streams of western 



Pennsylvania has its breeding season in autumn. [The 



_ scene shows Mue asters and ripening grapes along the river. 1 



mander Group ' 



Note that the hellbenders are w holly aquatic, no one of them 

 being shown even partially out of water. The river is represented as 

 flowing directly toward the observer to expose the nestsandeggs which are 



under the rocks on the down stream side out of the current. At each nest a 



salamander (the male) is on guard over the eggs, and there are young sala- 

 manders one year old and two years old. Also various habits of the sala- 

 manders art 1 shown, for instance, one is molting its skin, and others are 

 eating crayfish caught from the rocks, or small fish. The animals of the giant 

 salamander group are cast from the salamanders themselves, soft, jelly-like 

 animals when taken out of water and which therefore had to be posed under 

 oil so that their natural form would be kept while the plaster molds were 

 being made. 



The scene is a typical lily pond and this giant of Xorth American amphi- 

 bians is shown living both under the water and above on the 

 u land. The group illustrates the changes from the tadpole to 



the adult frog and shows many of the activities of the frog — 

 its molting, swimming, breathing under water and in air, croaking and 

 " lying low " before an enemy; also food habits in relation to small mammals, 

 to birds, snakes, insects, small fish and turtles. The plant life of the group 

 affords study of ecological arrangement from the delicate under-water forms, 

 through the floating duckweed and near-shore water lilies and pickerel 

 weeds to water-loving shrubs such as willow, swamp alder and white azalea. 

 The group has a transparent background, the lights in front balanced by 

 other lights behind the painted canvas. 



The lizard group pictures a Lower California island. The brilliant hot 



sunshine, the sand, cacti and volcanic rock with the various 



T . , ~ kinds of lizards fitted to endure desert life make a striking 



Lizard Group .... . 



contrast with adjoining groups. The larger specimens of the 



group, the iguanas and chuckwallas as well as the horned toads are mounted 



skins. The smaller specimens, such as the zebra-tails (at the center of the 



group) and collared lizards (running at rear left), are wax casts. The group 



had an interesting method of construction. All the ground work, the rocky 



slopes enclosing sandy gulleys leading down to the sea, was modeled life 



size in clay and then cast as a whole in plaster, so that the completion of the 



group meant merely the addition of plants and animals as planned and the 



final perfecting of all with color, papier-mache and wax. 



The toad group might well be given some more descriptive name. It 



presents a New England scene in early May and seems the personification 



_ of spring, filled with the exuberance of new life and suggest- 



Toad Group . . . . „. . . 



ing everywhere motion and sound, birds are just at the 



