SLENDER SALAMANDER. Batrachoseps attenuatus (Eschscholtz)

Field characters.—Body slender and worm-like, 1/4 inch or less in diameter; legs and feet very small and weak; but four toes on each foot; side of body with 19 (18 to 20) crosswise grooves. Middle of back dark brown; sides and under surface blackish, with many minute freckles of silvery white.

Occurrence.—Recorded definitely only at Snelling; to be expected in western foothills of Sierra Nevada, below 3500 feet altitude. Lives in moist places such as the interior of decayed logs, beneath rocks, and in the burrows of small rodents.

The Slender Salamander gains a place in the Yosemite fauna on the basis of one record. At Snelling, on January 8, 1915, an old rotted log half buried in river-washed debris was broken open by one of our party, and 3 of these salamanders were found inside. Two others were discovered in slight depressions in the ground beneath the log. In the interior of this same log was found a group of about 15 small eggs, each of which was in a gelatinous capsule to which was attached a slender thread of similar material. The size and form of the eggs, their situation and the time of year at which they were found, all suggest that they were eggs of this salamander. Unfortunately the eggs were not preserved, nor was their identity established with certainty at the time.

The presence of the Slender Salamander at so low a station as Snelling, in the Lower Sonoran Zone, while not an unique occurrence, is decidedly unusual. The possibility suggests itself that the animals found there had been transported while in the log, from some up-river locality, during a period of high water.