50 
University of California Publications in Zoology [Vol. 27 
account will therefore include only the main points in the life-history, 
emphasizing items lacking or incomplete in the previous paper. 
Triturus torosus is a typical 1 ‘ amphibian, ” spending a part of 
each year in the water and the rest of the time on land. The eggs are 
deposited in water, where the larvae grow and metamorphose. Then 
the young animals quit the water, to return when sexually mature 
for spawning. Thereafter they enter and leave the water each year 
at spawning time. The exact division of time between the land and 
water seems to vary with individuals and locality. In the creeks of 
the redwood belt in northwestern California some newts are to be 
found in the water at practically all times of year. In the vicinity 
of Berkeley and in Mariposa County, to cite only two localities, the 
animals depart soon after spawning has been completed. The males 
continue in the water on the average much longer than the females, 
although the exact period during which any individual remains is 
unknown. In Thornhill Pond, 3 miles southeast of Berkeley, the male 
newts are present in numbers for six or eight weeks in the early 
spring. On one occasion the adults there left the water almost en 
masse , as early as January 26. Ordinarily, a few continue in this 
particular pond until May. In Blacks Creek, Mariposa County, two 
adults were seen in a deep pool on May 11 (1919). Adults were 
common in Papermill Creek, Marin County, on June 1 (1919), and 
near Inverness, Marin County, several were noted in Lemna- covered 
pools on July 5 (1919). One was seen in a spring on the ridge above 
Alma, Santa Clara County, on June 23 (1917). In a creek in the 
redwood belt 10 miles northwest of Ukiah many individuals were seen 
in the water June 18 to 20 (1922). At Corvallis, Oregon, Chandler 
(1918, p. 6) states that the adults are aquatic during the summer 
season, but in October or November they come out on land and in 
November or December retreat to cavities under logs or stones, coming 
forth occasionally on warm days. The return to the water may occur 
as early as the first of January with the males, while with the females 
it is somewhat later. 
Both ponds and creeks are inhabited by the newts during their 
aquatic existence; when on land they seek shelter during the day 
under stones, in or under rotted logs, and in the burrows of ground- 
dwelling mammals. Torosus is occasionally to be seen abroad during 
the daytime, its thickened and roughened skin probably resisting 
desiccation to a greater degree than the smooth moist body covering 
of the other species of local salamanders. A majority of the indi- 
