BREEDING OF MEGALOBATRACHUS 
in the mountains of Iga and Hiruze ; asa rule the larger 
the streams which the eft inhabits, the larger the eft 
itself, precisely as in the case of other freshwater crea- 
tures. It will be noticed that the animal has not, what 
some others of the Urodele amphibians have, any 
vestige of external breathing organs, the gills or branchize. 
Nor is there the least trace of a cleft which is associated 
in other amphibians with such gills. In this it differs 
from the very closely allied, though smaller, North 
American Menopoma, or “ Hellbender,” as its singular 
vernacular name runs. Both animals are often together 
at the Zoo, and in adjacent tanks, so that they can be 
easily compared. Our salamander has a great flat head, 
a warty body of a brownish olive to almost black in hue. 
The limbs are fully developed, which is not always the 
case in its allies, and terminate in the usual five but 
stumpy fingers and toes. It nourishes itself in its native 
haunts upon little fishes and other aquatic creatures, 
which it hardly pursues with effort, but simply snaps 
up when they are so imprudent as to venture within 
reach of its jaws. The only time when this lethargic 
inhabitant of the waters shows any activity’is the breed- 
ing season in August and September; it then moves 
about with more frequency and rapidity, and, like our 
crested newt, assumes a slightly brighter coloration. 
These amphibians have never bred at the Zoo; but 
lately they have at Amsterdam; and Dr. Kerbert, of 
the Zoological Society of that city, has been able to 
watch them and report upon their behaviour. It is 
quite possible that such a happy occurrence may occur 
at our Zoo; for no particular help in the way of run- 
ning water or larger accommodation seems to be neces- 
sary. This newt, like others, and even after the fashion 
of some frogs and toads, deposits its eggs not in a mass, 
such as we are all familiar with in pools in this country 
in the early spring, the work, of course, of the common 
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