THE SIRED OK 
181 
they are terrestrial when adult, living in damp places and 
feeding on insects. The larvae retain their gills to a period 
when they are as large or even larger than the parent. The 
most interesting of all the salamanders is the Amblystoma 
mavortiurn, whose larva is called the axolotl (Fig. 228). 
Fig. 227.— Skeleton of the hell-bender (ikfenojooma). From Lutken's Zoclogy. 
This larva is larger than the adult, which lives on land, 
sometimes being about a third of a metre (12 inches) in 
length, the adult being twenty centimetres (8 inches) long. 
The axolotl or siredon abounds in the lakes of the Kocky 
Mountain plateau from Montana to Mexico, from an alti- 
tude of 4000 to 8000 or 9000 feet; the Mexican axolotl be- 
