Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 62.djvu/536

530 towards the last of July their appetites seemed to increase, and they were fed every two days. They would never eat, as has been said, while they were watched, but if the liver were left in the tank over night, most of it would be eaten before morning.

The extreme slowness of their digestion is shown by the fact that liver eaten seventy hours before, on being disgorged showed very little change, the pieces being of about the same size and consistency as when swallowed.

After about the middle of September, the hellbenders refused to eat during a period of more than two months, though pieces of liver were put into their tank at intervals. One morning at the end of this period, on looking into the tank, something black was seen projecting from the mouth of one of the largest hellbenders, which on close examination proved to be the end of the tail of the smallest of the hellbenders, which had been swallowed head-first. By means of a pair of forceps the smaller individual was withdrawn from within the larger, and both immediately swam away, none the worse apparently for their remarkable experience. The smaller hellbender was a little more than half as long as the one by which it was swallowed. In spite of this apparent return of appetite, the hellbenders ate but little of the fresh supply of liver that was immediately given them.

The remarkable vitality of the hellbender is well known by those who have had any opportunity of studying the living animal. Mr. Townsend in the article mentioned above says: "They are remarkably tenacious of life. I carried my specimens six miles in a bag behind me on horseback, under a blazing hot sun, and kept them five weeks in a tub of water without a morsel to eat, and when I came to put them in alcohol they seemed almost as fresh as ever."

I had several illustrations of their tenacity of life. One of the first specimens I obtained, a large one, more than 50 cm. in length, escaped from the tank into which it had been placed and hid itself under a lot of lumber and rubbish that was piled near by. After a long search it was given up for lost, but one morning, just a week later, on going into the cellar where the tank was kept, there lay the escaped hellbender, dry and dusty but as well as ever, and the same animal is living at the present time. Some months later, while they were living in a tank of running water in the back yard of a city house, another hellbender escaped and could not be found. Exactly three weeks later it was found lying on the pavement outside of the yard. It was still living, though extremely thin and weak, but it died a few hours after being put back into the tank, possibly because it was too weak to swim to the surface for air. During the three weeks it was lost it changed color very decidedly, becoming a reddish-brown, with the dark spots showing in sharp contrast. During the latter part of June sixteen hellbenders,