150 SALAMANDRAD.E. 



dorsal crest, as I have just described it, be the normal 

 manner in which the animal makes its seasonal change of 

 dress? 11 



It was on this species principally that Spallanzani tried his 

 well known experiments on the reproduction of portions of 

 the extremities and of the tail ; and he found that the same 

 member will be reproduced several times in succession of 

 being cut off, and this with the bones, muscles, vessels, and 

 nerves belonging to its original state. Its tenacity of life, 

 like that of most other cold-blooded vertebrate animals, is 

 a remarkable feature in its functional character. It has 

 been frozen in a solid block of ice, and when slowly thawed, 

 it has appeared scarcely injured. 



The food of this species is similar to that of the larger 

 species. Like them, it not only eats aquatic insects and 

 small Mollusca and worms, but swallows the tadpoles of the 

 Frog and Toad with great avidity. 



It is almost unnecessary to say that the accusation of 

 being poisonous, so generally believed by the lower classes 

 in most parts of the country, is wholly unfounded. 



The word Eft, or Evet, by which the whole of these 

 animals are designated in many parts of the country, is 

 Anglo-Saxon ; " Efete, — an Eft, a Newt, a Lizard, 11 says 

 Somner. " I know not, 1- ' says Skinner, " whether from 

 Ef-an, equalis, from the smoothness and evenness of the 

 skin. 11 Junius suggests that Newt is corrupted from an 

 evet, a nevet, a newt. 



The whole of the skin in this species is quite smooth ; 

 there are no tubercles, but on the head are two rows of 

 pores. Tail terminating in a sharp point. The lip of the 

 male is slightly lobed in the spring, but becomes straight er 

 when it loses its crest towards winter. The crest of the 

 back and tail in the male are, during the season of repro- 



