116 Dr Rusconfs Observations on the Natural History 
third year. In the female, the yellow streak enlarges and be- 
comes dull. 
Such are the changes which these animals undergo, according to 
age, sex, and season ; but they exhibit many other changes as to 
colour, which are altogether accidental and fleeting. The au- 
thor has more than once seen an individual, which was of a pale 
green above and almost without spots, become brown, and co- 
vered with large bluish spots in less than -an hour ; and these 
again disappeared, and the animal no longer presented, on the 
upper surface, but one uniform tint, which was almost black. 
It is from inattention to the changes in form and colour, arising 
from difference of age, sex, and season, that so much confusion 
in the classification of the species of these reptiles has proceeded. 
This species of salamander lives always in the water. If 
sometimes he is* met with on land, it is when, from any cause, 
the place of his abode has been dried up, and he is obliged to go 
on land in quest of another pond. He never feeds on the lentils 
in the water, but only on living animals, resembling, in this re- 
spect, frogs. The intervals of respiration in these reptiles are 
more or less long, according to the degree of heat in which they 
live, and the quantity of nourishment they take. When they 
hybernate in holes under ground,, their tail is rolled up in a spi- 
ral form. This species is less vivacious than the preceding. The 
male, in making his caresses, does not bend his tail forward like 
the other, and seems, in all respects, to fulfil the views of nature 
with less ardour and pleasure. The female, when wearied of 
flying from the male, at length stops, and yields to his caresses, 
sustaining herself immoveably on the water. The male then ap- 
proximates his head towards that of the female ; and, profiting of 
her docility, places himself by her side, but somewhat in ad- 
vance ; and, bending his body in a peculiar manner, he begins 
first to lash the water, and afterwards the sides of the female, 
with his tail. His anus, at this time, is very prominent and 
open, and is bristled interiorly with small points of a silvery 
white hue. After striking the female with his tail two or three 
times, he separates a little from her, and falls into a sort of 
drowsy state. He no longer sustains himself on his paws, but 
extends himself so that his belly is stretched out on the mud, 
and he seems to have lost the use of his limbs. His tail, how- 
