FOREST AND STREAM. 
two etitlnisiastic scientists, it is hardly protjable that it 
will ever be regarded by the fisherman as acceptable 
game. Therfe is no foundation, however, for the belief 
that it is poisonous. Another species which may be 
known as the speckled necturus has been obtained from 
the streams of North and Soutli Carolina. It differs 
from the one described above in the shape of the head, 
the arrangement of the teeth and in the color, which is a 
nearly uniform broAvnish or slate color dotted over with 
small whitish specks. 
In the next figure is shown onfe of the most recently 
discovered American salamanders, a white, sightless 
species, which three or four years ago came to the sur- 
face with the first rush of water ffom an artesian well 
at San Marcos, Texas. 
Coming now to the large suborder Urodela, which in- 
cludes over 50 species, we will consider first the two 
species which are distinguished from the others by the 
fact that they alone are destitute of eyelids, and although 
Fig. 3.— The Hellbender (Cryplobranchus alleghaniensis). 
without external gills, they still retain a gill slit on each 
side of the ndck. The commonest of these is known by 
some of the same vernacular names that are applied to 
the necturus, but the euphonious "hellbender" seems to 
belong to it alone, and it may therefore be known by that 
name or its scientific designation, Cryptobranchiis. It 
is our largest salamander, for although its total length 
may not exceed two feet, its body is broad and heavy. 
It may also claim the title of the ugliest salamander, for 
its coarse, sprawling form, flat head and slimy skin make 
it a repulsive object. In the larger streams and lakes 
from Pennsylvania to Iowa and southward to South 
Carolina and Louisiana it is common, and in some places 
unpleasantly abundant. It is cordially despised by fisher- 
men who too often find it upon their hooks, and who de- 
rive some satisfaction in making its flat head still flatter 
by crushing it with the first convenient stone. It is very 
tenacious of life, and so far as is known has very few- 
natural enemies, two facts which easily account for its 
abundance. Its food is of a varied character, and it does 
not scorn to feast to repletion on any offal which may 
come its way. When caught it will sometimes make an 
attempt to bite, and, judging from the manner in which 
I have seen it seize and hang on to a stick, a nip from 
one might be anything but pleasant. 
The next animal which is, like the hellbender, devoid of 
eyelids and provided with a gill slit on each side of the 
neck, is a southern species and does not occur north of 
southern Indiana. It is knowm as the Amphiuma or 
locally as the Congo-snake or Congo-eel. Its form, in- 
deed, is such as to recall very strongly the snake or eel 
rather than a salamander, but the presence of two pairs 
of diminutive legs and the smooth skin places it at once 
among the batrachians. In length it may reach three feet 
Figr. 4. — Congo Eel {Amphiuma means). 
and in color it is dark slaty or reddish brown, paler be- 
low. The head is long and pointed, and its whole struc- 
ture appears to adapt it to burrowing about in the mud 
along ditches or streams. It has been found three or four 
feet under ground. Its food consists of small fishes, 
beetles, and other aquatic animals. At times it has been 
known to leave the water, possibly to look for some more 
favorable location, possibly in search of food or a mate. 
Its eggs, which have been found but once, are about a 
third of an inch in diameter, and each one is inclosed in a 
spherical capsule which is connected by a slender cord 
with the others in such a manner as to make the mass 
resemble a string of beads. Dr. O. P. Hay, who made 
this discovery, reports that the embryos inclosed in these 
eggs had each three pairs of conspicuous gills, but these 
must be lost very quickly, for specimens only three inches 
long have been collected which bore no trace of them. 
Dr. Hay also reports that the large female which he 
found under a log in a swamp coiled about the mass of 
eggs, "on being teased with a stick seized it in her mouth 
and springing from the floor on which she lay, whirled 
round and round in a spiral form and twisted the stick 
in his hand unless he held it tightly." 
Turning now to the smaller salamanders which are 
found so abundantly under rocks or logs or leaves in the 
forests or about the margins of ponds, we find that they 
possess uniformly eyelids and have no gill slits. In form 
their bodies may vary from short and stout to compara- 
tively slender, and in color they range from black to 
brownish or yellow or bright red. They are all inoffen- 
sive little animals which probably accomplish much good 
work in ridding us of noxious worms and insects. Their 
eggs are sometimes laid snugly and attached to blades of 
grass in the water, but gome species produce a large solid 
mass as large as one's fist consisting of a large number 
of eggs surrounded by a milky white jelly. 
Perhaps the most widely distributed representative of 
these animals is the tiger salamander, Ambystokid 
tigrinum. It is also one of the largest of this group, as it 
sometimes reaches a length of nearly a foot; the body is 
heavily built and looks as if swollen. The ground color 
is a livid blue-black, brown or black, but scattered over 
the back and sides are numerous spots of bright yellow, 
which vary greatly in size, shape and arrangement; they 
may even run together so as to almost cover the whole 
upper surface or they may be almost absent. The belly 
is usually wholly overlaid with sulphur yellow, through 
which brighter yellow spots show indistinctly. It is dis- 
tributed from Maine to Florida, California and Mexico. 
It is usually found in the water or along the shore of 
some quiet pond, but it is not confined to such locations, 
and specimens have been found in hot, dry earth a long 
distance from water. Some years ago the author kept a 
large specimen of the tiger salamander for several weeks 
in a small aquarium and found it a most interesting 
pet. It seemed to be most contented when lyiner covered 
up in the sand above the water's edge, but occasionally 
went into the water of its own accord. It shed its epider- 
mis about every ten days, always going, for this purpose, 
into the water, where it remained for some time 
after the process was complete. The skin was slipped 
back from the head and drawn off the body like a glove 
and showed perfectly the form of the animal. The colder 
months were spent almost wholly beneath the water, 
but every ten or fifteen minutes a trip was made to the 
surface for air. It learned very quickly to eat nearly 
everything that was offered to it, and while a captive 
its bill of fare included two small frogs, a large caterpil- 
lar, angle-worms, and numerous pieces of raw meat. A 
dead mouse was once offered to it, but although it made 
an honest effort to swallow the morsel, its throat was too 
small and it was forced to desist. The tiger salamander 
lays its eggs early in the spring in pockets of from twenty 
Fig. 5.— The Mud Eel {Siren lacertina). 
to fifty, attaching them to blades of grass in the water. 
The tadpoles emerge in twenty-five days. In about a 
month the fore legs appear and a little later the hind legs. 
By the middle of August, under ordinary conditions, 
these larvae have reached a length of over four inches, 
the gills begin to be absorbed, and the animal soon be- 
takes itself to the land. In the southwestern part of the 
United States and in Mexico the larvae have their meta- 
morphosis delayed indefinitely, and perhaps never lose 
their gills. In such a case the reproductive organs be- 
come fully developed and the siredons or axolotls, as 
they are known, are able to reproduce their kind. It may 
also be of interest to state that axolotls are sold in the 
markets of the City of Mexico to be used as food. 
Another interesting salamander is the species corh- 
monly known as the scaly or four-toed salamander 
{Hemidactylium acutatum). It is a small brown animal 
yvith small pale spots on its back and sides which is found 
in certain localities in the eastern half of our country. 
It lays its eggs in damp moss near the roots of trees and 
on the banks of ponds, but it seems doubtful if the larvaa 
go into the water. Their gills are absorbed very early, 
and they then betake themselves to some place of conceal- 
ment near, but not in, the water. The adults have been 
heard to make a low squeaking sound. 
Besides these two species there are many others, each 
exhibiting its own peculiar style of structure, coloration, 
and habits, and the author would gladly furnish about 
them such information as is at his command, but space is 
limited. We will therefore pass to the consideration of 
the last group of salamanders which is perhaps best 
represented by the animal known as the siren or mud-eel. 
Siren lacertina, although a more southern species, called 
Pseudohranchus, differs from it only in having one gill 
slit instead of two or three, and three toes instead of 
four. 
The siren occurs as far north as northern Indiana, but 
is very rare. Further to the south it is more common, 
and in some localities even abundant. In form it 
strongly recalls the Amphiuma, and its habits seem to be 
quite similar. By one observer it is said to feed on ser- 
pents, which it catches and holds with its teeth, but the 
specimens which have been kept in captivity fed readily 
on angle-worms, pieces of meat, etc. It gets its name of 
siren from a "shrill querulous song" which it is said to 
emit at times. Nothing definite is known of its breeding 
habits or the early stages. 
We have now come to the end of the salamander group, 
but before leaving them the author cannot resist the 
ternptation to call attention to the manner in which these 
animals have been misrepresented in ancient and even 
modern literature, as being able to withstand a degree of 
heat that would quickly prove fatal to any other form of 
life. There is no more foundation for this idea than 
there is for the idea that the salamanders — or in fact any 
of the batrachians-— are poisonous. The notion is ridicu- 
lous, but has obtained credence so long that in spite of 
the fact that scientists have repeatedly demonstrated its 
falsity it has not yet been entirely dissipated. 
W. P, Hay. 
All communications intended for Forest and Stream should 
always be addressed to the Forest and Stream Publishing Co., 
New York, aud not to any individual connected with the paper. 
Spring in Nebraska. 
Wymore, Nebraska, April iS,.— Editor Forest and 
Stream: I see blossoms, blossoms everywhere. That 
wall of pink— all shades of pink— is the peach trees. The 
white blossoms among the green leaves are on, the pear 
trees; the greenish blossoms are on the plum trees; and 
th.it bank of snow is the cherry trees. Last and prettiest 
and most fragrant of all are the red and white blossoms 
in the apple orchard, and all within two hundred feet of 
where I sit. 
I have read of someone who ridiculed the old man for 
planting trees, because he could not expect to eat of the 
fruit. That does not worry me. Let me see: I bought 
this ground in 1893, only ten years ago. In the fall of that 
year I planted walnuts; they came up the next year and 
for the past three years have had walnuts on the trees. 
Not a tree was set out until the spring of 1894, nine years 
ago, and we have had some fruit for several years past, 
and the prospect is that from this time on we will have 
more fruit than we can take care of. 
I am only fifty-four now, and who laiows but that I can 
plant a dozen more orchards and eat the fruit; but, as 
Antoine would say, "that make no dif." I love to plant 
trees, and have helped to plant over 200 shade trees this 
spring. 
I am holding the first office I ever held in my life: I 
am Park-' Commissioner for my home town. It is not one 
of your vulgar salaried positions, but a pure sinecure, all 
work and no pay; and I would rather be Park Commis- 
sioner than to be President. I fancy I can hear some ward 
heeler say, "What a cheerful old liar he is, to be sure ;" 
but my oldest and best friends will say, "No, he is not 
lying, he is just a crank." 
Some of our visitors smile when they hear us speak of 
two fine elms in the yard as "Cyrus-Mary" and "William- 
Sarah." But that has been their names ever since, my 
wife held them up while I set them; and the first alwavs 
speaks to her of her father and mother, who have crossed 
the great divide, while the other reminds me of my father, 
v.'ho rests in the National Cemetery at Nashville, and of 
my old pioneer mother, now living on a ranch in north- 
western Nebraska, and still a widow. 
What sight on earth can be more beautiful than a green 
lawn well set with shade and ornamental trees on this 
spring evening, just after a good rain? 
And all this in the Great American Desert; but surely 
the promise has been fulfilled that "the desert shall blos- 
som as the rose." A. D. McCandless. 
P. S.— Just thirty-six hours later. The ground is 
covered with snow, the ice is three-quarters of an inch 
thick, and the blossoms are all gone. The leaves on the 
walnut trees are black, and that beautiful prospect that I 
saw day before yesterday is gone, like Hans Breitmann's 
barty, a fay m de Evigkeit." Uncle John says that it was 
just such a morning as this, a hundred years ago: 
Napoleon had been haggling with Jeff for several days to 
get him to throw in a few span of Missouri mules, but 
when he got up and saw the snow he closed the trade and 
was glad to go without the mules. But it's great weather 
for the wheat. McC. 
Rev. Newton Mann, of Unity Church, took occasion 
m his last Sunday's sermon to hand the following 
brotherly bunch to the Rev. Robert E. Lee Craig, rector 
of Trinity Cathedral, anent his recent experience up in 
the sandhills of Thomas county with the meadowlarks: 
The sorry spectacle is still presented in these days of a 
piety Avhich has no affiliation with morality; a service of 
God without obligation of kindness to His creatures. 
Was there ever a more melancholy illustration of this 
than the story of a prominent Omaha minister who ad- 
ministered the sacrament and christened babes out in the 
State a few days ago, and then amused himself on the 
way back by shooting song birds ? 
"For bringing into town the bodies of twenty-two 
meadowlarks, he was arrested and fined $110, and is un- 
able to see any wrong in his course, only regretting the 
personal inconvenience to which he was subjected 
It IS such things which show how far the shadows of 
the dark ages still reach down among us, and stealinc^ over 
us disturb not the least our equanimity." 
The Governor of the State has not yet made his ap- 
pointments of State Game Warden and Fish Commis- 
sioner, but the consensus of opinion is that he will shortly 
do so and that an entirely new roster of officials will be 
installed. There are numerous applicants for both posi- 
tions and Governor Mickey will experience little vexation 
m selecting good men for the places. 
Dr. Frank Owen and Joe Sykes were out at Oberfelder 
Lake near Lodge Pole, Sunday, and returned Mondav 
with 62 pounds of black bass. The catch numbered ^\ 
tish, the largest weighing a trifle over five pounds Ober- 
felder Lake IS on the ranch of Bob Oberfelder, ex-State 
Jj?|^^^CommissiOner, and is the best stocked lake in 
"^^^'^K i'^T^' the hermit guide, fisherman and trap- 
per at Cutoff Lake, was m my office this morning and 
lie reports the bags rising very encouragingly at Cutoff 
and with the first real sultry weather he predicts excellent 
sport for the casters. Croppie and ring-perch are larger 
this spring than for years, and just now are biting vora- 
ciously. ® 
Up near Ericson, on the Elkhorn, Big Bass Lake for 
years famous for its big-mouth bass, is goino- dry ' The 
dam below the lake broke during the unprecedented bliz- 
zard of Apri 29, and the lake is now but a miniature of 
Its former self. Sandy Griswold. 
Omawa, May 7. 
A Tame Wren's Retwrn. 
OwEGo, N Y., May 8.-A few days ago Jennie Wren 
came to rent the same little cottage that she took last 
spring. While at breakfast we heard her little gushin^ 
song, and rushed out into the grounds to welcome her^ 
tor we had been waiting these many days for her to ao- 
pear and take her summer cottage. There she sat, perched 
on top of the old house, singing in an ecstacy of joy and 
delight and we, too were happy to know that here she 
would live through the warm weather, and that we should 
watch her build her nest, and see her babv birds flittin^ 
among the branches of the trees. ' 
