GREAT WATER NEWT. 145 



gress during the winter, and do not attain a 

 terrestrial state until the ensuing spring. Under 

 ordinary and favourable circumstances, five or six 

 months are necessary for their passage through their 

 metamorphosis. 



There were, prior to Mr. Higginbottom's paper 

 becoming known, two puzzles in the history and 

 habits of the tritons. Why were they so commonly 

 collected from water, and yet, soon after being trans- 

 ferred to water in confinement, make every effort to 

 escape from that element ? And why were so many 

 varieties and sizes, crested or uncrested, found, and 

 yet so nearly allied as to appear but as forms of the 

 same species ? Answers to both these queries are 

 found in the terrestrial habit and slow development 

 of the reptile through three whole years after its 

 change from the tadpole stage. " The triton does 

 not commonly return to the water until the expira- 

 tion of the third year, when it is so far advanced 

 towards maturity as to be able to reproduce its 

 kind." We have here a singular instance of pro- 

 tracted development, of a slow growth through four 

 successive summers, and a cessation of growth 

 through four inglorious winters. At length the full 

 period of efthood is arrived at, when, the crested 

 male having attained the dimensions of a perfect 

 gentleman-newt, may take to himself a spouse, 

 or the more soberly attired lady-newt lend a 



