Near Fayetteville, New York, a suburban village eight miles east from the center of Syracuse, lies a valley whose northern boundary is a steep hillside, stone-littered and heavily wooded with a variety of deciduous trees. An abundance of flat rock and fallen timber together with a rich humus and moist soil make this slope ani excellent collecting ground for salamanders and snakes. Below, there is a level meadow with a series of cattail marshes at its upper or eastern end, and from these rises a small stream, in the course of which a good-sized, elongate pool occurs, averaging three feet in depth and ten in width. Throughout the brief extent of the brook, but especially concentrated in the pool, there is a wealth of life, among which water-snakes, green frogs, newts, spotted salamander larvae, caddis-fly larvae, water striders and pond snails stand out conspicuously. On the hillside the forms most frequently collected are milk, DeKay's and garter snakes, newts in the land stage, spotted, slimy, red-backed and dusky salamanders, and a host of worms, sow-bugs, myriapods, aind cryptozoic insects, especially groundbeetles and ants. The specimen of spotted salamander in question was discovered on May 14, 1928, beneath a flat rock about half way up the slope opposite the pool, while another and entirely ordinary individual of the same species was