No. 444] 



. / (J TO DA X L UG UBRIS. 



885 



bottom all the cavities they could find, even though the 

 entrances had to be cut larger in order that the remedial 

 treatment might be administered, the dwelling places of the 

 salamanders would surely not have been found. Wide 

 mouthed cavities were rarely found occupied. 



The egg clusters, each containing from twelve to eighteen 

 eggs, and each egg with its own pedicle about two centimeters 

 in length were usually suspended from an overhanging surface 

 where the parent was able to bring its body into contact with 

 them. This it did by winding itself around the egg clusters 

 in much the same way that several other species of Urodela are 

 known to do. More than one bunch of eggs rarely occurred in 

 the same hole. 



Several observ ations make the question of the extent to which 

 parental care of the eggs and young may go in this species, one 

 of much interest. In the first place it appears that the male 

 and female may both together participate in the office. Prob- 

 ably a majority of the cavities in which eggs were found con- 

 tained two animals of maximum size. In some instances at least 

 these were certainly male and female. Whether this was always 

 or usually the case or not I am not yet able to say, since, this 

 point not having been raised until most of the animals taken 



to tell which were inmates of the same hole. It may be noted 

 in this connection that there are no secondary sexual distinc tions 

 in this species, so far as I have been able to determine. 



Again the animal seems to exercise more or less of an active 

 defence either of itself or of its eggs or both. Its unusually 

 large teeth has been a subject of comment by nearly all zoolo- 

 gists who have written about it, 1 and in the paper by Miller and 

 myself attention was called to Cope's statement that "this Auto- 

 dax is probably more capable of inflicting a bite than any other 

 of the American salamanders.'' At that time we were obliged 

 to say, however, that » we had not been able to get any positive 



