THE NEWTS. 79 



sions the water in the globe was frozen hard, the frogs and the 

 larger newt being under the ice, but the tiny skeleton eft remained 

 above. Though literally frozen up, none can be said to have 

 actually hibernated, their eyes being always open, and when the 

 ice was broken the frogs dashed about as vigorously as in 

 summer. 



MOLGE PALMATA. 



The male palmated newt may be easily recognised among 

 others in the water by having its toes fully webbed, like a duck's 

 foot ; and by a curious little filament, something like a tentacle, 

 growing out of the tip of its tail. One should rather say the 

 end of its tail, which is blunt, as if that portion were cut off, 

 and this filament substituted the lost tip. In the female there 

 is only a very slight indication of the same thing, her tail being 

 more pointed, like the other newts. Palmata is the smallest of 

 the three, and smooth-skinned, the female somewhat resembling 

 the smooth newt. 



As it is in the spring, when all the Batrachia take to the water 

 again, that the newts are generally sought for and caught, a 

 description of Palmata at that season will best assist in identifying 

 him, this newt having peculiar aquatic adornments. His crest is 

 lower and straight, without the handsome festooning of the others. 

 His tail has an upper and lower crest, not very deep, so that he 

 lacks the fine appearance of Vulgaris. His body at this season 

 has a quadrangular appearance, by reason of a sort of keel formed 

 by a cutaneous fold bordering each side of it. The body of the 

 female is roundish ; she has a low crest or vertebral ridge, but 

 less conspicuous than in her mate, and also a fin or crest of pale 

 orange colour on the lower part of her tail. It is interesting to 

 note how these newts develop extra appendages when they for a 

 time renew their aquatic life, and which afterwards disappear 

 during their terrestrial existence ; the crests, the webs between 

 the toes, and in this species the tail filament, all disappear at the 

 end of the season. It is an intelligent instinct also that causes 

 them to take to the water during the breeding season, as if they 

 were conscious of the necessity of that element for the young 

 which are to be hatched and to spend their tadpole existence 

 in it. 



The other characteristics of Molge palmata are that it has 

 vomerine teeth, and a distinct gula fold, that is, a slight doubling 

 over of the skin of the throat. In colour the upper parts are a 

 sort of olive-brown with small spots of a darker hue. The head 

 has longitudinal dark streaks upon it, and the dorsal crest of the 



