117 
and Structure of the Aquatic Salamander . 
ever, is elevated, and makes some slight convulsive movements, 
but not at all directed by the will of the animal. Even his 
trunk partakes of slight contractions; and, at length, small jloculi 
of thick white mucus are discharged by the anus, and fall to the 
bottom of the water, in presence of the female. This drowsy 
state continues only a short time ; the animal awakens ; begins 
again to strike the female with his tail ; sheds anew the prolific 
liquor ; and, after repeating two or three times, this species of 
copulation, he abandons his companion altogether. In Fig. 3,, 
the male of this species is represented of the natural size, at the 
• moment in which the prolific fluid is discharged. 
During the time the male lashes the female with his tail, she 
remains immoveable, but at last she puts herself in motion ; and, 
with that slowness which is peculiar to her, goes in search of a 
plant the most proper for receiving her eggs. It is almost al- 
ways the Persicaria which she chooses. In performing this of- 
fice, she approaches her head to the borders of a leaf, and, 
with her snout, turns it in such a way that the lower surface 
of the leaf, which looked toward the bottom, is made to turn 
towards her breast ; afterwards, with her fore paws, she passes 
the leaf, thus turned, under her belly ; then seizes it with her 
hind paws, and conducts it beneath the anus, having care, at the 
same time, to fold it, and form with it an angle, the opening of 
which is directed towards the tail. The egg, in escaping from 
the anus, would necessarily pass through the middle of the angle 
formed by the leaf, but it is stopped in its fall by the salamander, 
who, by means of her hind feet, shuts up immediately this angle, 
and thus forms in the leaf a fold in which the egg is contained. 
The egg, notwithstanding, would fall to the bottom of the water 
when the feet were removed ; but the salamander, before quitting 
the leaf, presses its folds so well with her hind feet, that the glue 
with which the envelope of the egg is besmeared, spreading it- 
self a little, by means of this pressure, on the two internal sur- 
faces of the leaf, prevents then the folds from opening. When 
several eggs have been laid in this manner, the animal remains 
tranquil in the vessel until another male comes to caress her, as 
before. How long the period of laying continued, the author 
does not know ; but he has found eggs as early as the middle 
of April and as late as the middle of July. In Fig. 4., a female 
