1925] Storer: A Synopsis of the Amphibia of California 
95 
Snyder (1923, pp. 86-88, 2 figs.) has described eggs of this species 
found at Palo Alto, Santa Clara County, March 14, 1922. The eggs 
were with the parent in a small pocket beneath the surface of the soil 
in a garden. The eggs were 
very firm, gelatinous globules, securely attached, one to another, much like loosely 
strung beads. 
Each egg measured 6.3 millimeters in diameter. The capsule was almost per- 
fectly transparent and of a pale amber color. When placed in water and viewed 
by transmitted light, the embryo appeared to be enclosed by two distinct capsules, 
one within the other. The outer, when dissected away, was dense or rigid enough 
to maintain its globular form. Its substance was amber-colored, whilst the cap- 
sule within was colorless. Extending from each pole of the outer capsule was a 
filament by which it was attached to the adjoining egg. The filament did not 
appear to be hollow. The inner capsule could not be made to revolve within the 
outer one, although the two readily separated. 
The embryo could be observed through the second capsule as clearly as if it 
had been embedded in optical glass. It was curled about a large straw-colored 
mass of yolk, the tail passing to one side of the head in one case, a little below 
and posterior to it in another. At this time the legs were well developed and 
large trilobed gills were present. It will be recalled that Batrachoseps is terres- 
trial, and is never seen in the water. It could not be determined whether the gills 
were functioning as organs of respiration. 
The second enclosing capsule was dissected away, but unlike the first one, it 
fell into a shapeless mass. It was removed with difficulty, being very elusive, 
easily evading the edge of the scalpel. It was now seen that the embryo was 
within still another capsule, the substance of which was very viscid and adhered 
closely to an inner membrane. When the latter was laid bare it quickly shrunk as 
if a contained fluid had passed out, compressing the embryo from all sides into the 
least possible space. When the membrane was ruptured the body of the embryo 
straightened out like a released spring. 
At the stage here described the embryo measured about 10 millimeters in 
length. When it grew to about 13 millimeters, and the yolk mass was consider- 
ably reduced, the gills were much shortened. Later, when the embryo was about 
16 millimeters long and the remnant of the yolk, enclosed within the body, was 
just visible through a long abdominal slit, the gills had nearly disappeared. 
Shortly after this, April 3, one salamander hatched. It measured 16.5 millimeters. 
No gills were visible. 
The writer has not observed the slender salamander burrowing in the ground, 
certainly not after the manner of the earthworm, as alluded to by Dr. Burke. 
Two embryos dissected out of the Berkeley material, several (5-10) 
days before other eggs in the lot began hatching, are provided with 
very slender gills; on one of the animals the gills consist of three 
slender filaments on each side. The yolk mass is still in evidence. 
These embryos measure nearly 14 millimeters in total length. Three 
young preserved 5 to 10 days after hatching (which occurred March 
20, 1920) likewise measure 14 millimeters. A young animal collected 
in another part of Berkeley on May 2, 1920, is but 16 millimeters long 
