54 University of California Publications in Zoology [Vol. 27 
eggs ready for extrusion (Mus. Vert. Zool. nos. 4474, 4475). At 
Corvallis, Oregon, mating usually begins in February and continues 
well into summer, copulating pairs being found as late as July 14. 
Eggs have been found “by the middle of April, and continue to be 
deposited until the middle of July” (Chandler, 1918, p. 7). 
The breeding habits of torosus have been described in detail by 
Kitter (1897) and need only be briefly mentioned here. The males 
patrol the water and seize the females when the latter enter. The 
male grasps his mate around the body by both fore and hind legs 
and his enlarged tail fin serves to carry the two about in the water. 
The enlarged cloacal region of the male fits down saddle-like over 
the smaller tail of the female. The method by which transfer of 
sperm is accomplished has not been discovered, though fertilization 
is known to be internal as females which have been embraced by males 
and then isolated lay fertile eggs. After the clasping period the 
females retire to the margins of the water where they deposit, their 
eggs without further attention from the males. 
On one occasion, at the Thornhill Pond (January 17, 1922) a 
tumbling mass of 20 or more males was noted in the water near the 
shore. Occasionally individuals left the group and rose to the surface 
to give off gas bubbles, after which they returned to the group. 
Females were close about, but so far as could be determined there was 
none in the mass of males. The cause of this behavior could not be 
ascertained. Males, in the height of sexual ardor, often grasp at any 
object near them and the grouping here described may have arisen in 
response to this reaction. 
The eggs of this; species are deposited in firm- jellied clumps 
attached to vegetation in the water (pi. 5, fig. 11). Eggs have been 
observed in water varying from 25 to 150 millimeters in depth 
although as a rule they are to be found at depths of 75 to 100 milli- 
meters. The eggs are usually extruded several at a time so that they 
adhere in clumps, although occasionally single eggs are deposited as 
with the Eastern Newt ( T . viridescens ) . Count of the eggs in 24 
typical masses picked up at random in the Thornhill Pond gave the 
following results : 21, 29, 16, 11, 25, 16, 18, 24, 20, 9, 17, 13, 18, 21, 
12, 18, 15, 8, 17, 12, 16, 7, 14, 22, extremes of 7 and 29 and an average 
of 16.6 eggs per mass. The water displacement of several masses 
totaling 219 eggs was about 32 cubic centimeters or 0.14 cubic centi- 
meter per egg. The outside diameter of the masses is about 15 milli- 
meters. Each egg is included in a large rounded or oval fluid-filled 
