THE NEWTS. 75 



isle, one large warty newt especially, so glossy black, like a marble 

 table ornament. If food were placed there they would sometimes 

 rouse themselves to seize it, but if not quick the worm would 

 wriggle off, when the newts made no effort to pursue it, and if 

 pushed oft" into the water themselves displayed no lack of activity 

 in trying to get out again. Hot weather stimulates their facul- 

 ties. Very soon they recognised the fact that when the zinc 

 cover was removed from the globe food supplies were arriving, 

 something to cause them to turn their heads ; and if by a touch 

 the island turned round and they upon it, their heads remained 

 directed towards that quarter, imparting very graceful curves to 

 the half- raised body. 



Newts, in common with other reptiles, moult during the sum- 

 mer. It has been affirmed by Bell and some other naturalists 

 that the skin comes off in shreds. This sometimes is the case, 

 but may be taken as the exception and not the rule. Observation 

 of the two British species, M. cristata and M. vulgaris, and also 

 of some Pleurodele newts, justifies the belief that, like most reptiles, 

 the sloughing begins at the mouth, the cuticle slipping — or being 

 shoved — off to the tail. You may see a newt pushing and rubbing 

 its jaws against anything with which it comes in contact until the 

 slough is separated round the lips, when by continual friction it is 

 pushed back. First one arm and then another is next drawn out, 

 sometimes reversed, sometimes not, the newt pushing down the 

 slough, occasionally expediting the process with its feet ; then 

 the legs are withdrawn, and the tail slides easily out from the 

 rest, which unless the newt eats it up directly, as it often does, 

 floats, a cloudy film, in the water. Its texture is almost too 

 attenuated to be termed a skin ; it is a shapeless, almost invisible 

 web, and, when taken out of the water, collapses into nothingness 

 almost indistinguishable on the stick or brush, or whatever you 

 use to raise it. But if, when it is floating, you very gently stir the 

 water near it, it may partially expand, so that a hand, or a leg, or 

 the tail part may be distinguished, and enable you to ascertain 

 whether it is entire or not. By this means I was able to observe 

 that a slough cast by a warty newt in May had a crest about as 

 high as that of the upper newt in the frontispiece ; and that 

 another, cast by the same newt about a month later, had barely 

 any crest at all, agreeing exactly with the gradual disappearance 

 of the crest on that particular newt. Often the little animals tear 

 away their sloughs with their mouths, or scratch it off with their 

 feet, twisting themselves about so frantically that one wonders 

 any part should remain entire. No doubt the loose skin irritates 

 them, as they occasionally tear off a bit and eat it, as if in irrita- 



