or less numerous yellow spots,
sometimes arranged in transverse bands. It rarely exceeds a length of nine
inches. This is the _Amblystoma_ into which the axolotl has been
ascertained to transform. It is generally admitted that the axolotls which
were kept alive in Europe and were particularly abundant between 1870 and
1880 are all the descendants of a stock bred in Paris and distributed
chiefly by dealers, originally, we believe, by the late P. Carbonnier.
Close in-breeding without the infusion of new blood is probably the cause
of the decrease in their numbers at the present day, specimens being more
difficult to procure and fetching much higher prices than they did
formerly, at least in England and in France.

The original axolotls, from the vicinity of Mexico City, it is believed,
arrived at the Jardin d'Acclimatation, Paris, late in 1863. They were
thirty-four in number, among which was an albino, and had been sent to that
institution, together with a few other animals, by order of Marshal Forey,
who was appointed commander-in-chief of the French expeditionary force to
Mexico after the defeat of General Lorencez at Puebla (May 5th, 1862), and
returned to France at the end of 1863, after having handed over the command
to Marshal (then General) Bazaine. Six specimens (five males and one
female) were given by the Societe d'Acclimatation to Professor A. Dumeril,
the administrator of the reptile collection of the Jardin des Plantes, the
living specimens of which were at that time housed in a very miserable
structure, situated at a short distance from the comparatively sumptuous
building which was erected some years later and opened to the public in
1874. Soon after their arrival at the Jardin d'Acclimatation, some of the
axolotls spawned, but the eggs, not having been removed from the aquarium,
were devoured by its occupants. At the same time, in the Jardin des
Plantes, the single female axolotl also spawned, twice in succession, and a
large number of young were successfully reared. This, it then seemed,
solved the often-discussed question of the perennibranchiate nature of
these Batrachians. But a year later, the second generation having reached
sexual maturity, new broods were produced, and out of these some
individuals lost their gills and dorsal crest, developed movable eyelids,
changed their dentition, and assumed yellow spots,--in fact, took on all
the characters of _Amblystoma tigrinum_. However, these transformed