COMMON SMOOTH NEWT OR EFT. \ 55 



Rolled up like a ball, 

 In a hole snug and small, 

 They sleep till warm weather comes back, poor things. 



Though the children in the nursery sing thus of 

 the dormouse, it is equally applicable to the newts. 

 In the early spring they emerge from their places 

 of concealment, and the mature animals seek the 

 water to pass a tripled honeymoon in an aquatic 

 state. 



The eft, in common with other reptiles, casts its 

 skin at certain, or perhaps uncertain, periods of 

 the year. Mr. Guyon has thus described the pro- 

 cess, from his own observation : — 



The operation was nearly completed, the skin being pushed 

 down the body in a ring, by which the hinder legs were, to use 

 an Irishism, handcuffed to the tail. The snout was principally 

 used in pushing it down, and the tail was scarcely free when the 

 animal seized the skin with its mouth, and in half-a-dozen gulps 

 swallowed it. This act occupied nearly a minute, duiing which 

 three filmy gloves, the integuments of the paws, were projecting 

 from the mouth. Although a tremendous yawn testified to the 

 fatigue of the performance, the newt made no objection to con- 

 cluding the meal with a scrap of roast mutton.* 



From Mr. Higginbottom's remarks one might 

 conclude that the mode of depositing the ova was 

 the same in this instance as in that of the warty 

 newt, and that each ovum was deposited separately 

 in the fold of a leaf. From this conclusion Mr. 



* 



The Zoologist, p. 6210. 



