PALMATED SMOOTH-NEWT. 155 



into which error I was led by trusting that the accuracy of 

 my lamented friend Bibron, so generally to be depended 

 on, was absolutely infallible, — has been subsequently cor- 

 rected from various quarters, and as the true L.palmipes 

 has been found extensively distributed in this country, — 

 I think it right to state the history of this discovery some- 

 what in detail. 



It was at the end of April 1843, that I received, through 

 the present Dean of Westminster, a communication from 

 Mr. Baker of Bridgewater, respecting a new species of 

 Newt which he had discovered in that neighbourhood ; 

 and on the 6th of May, that gentleman kindly forwarded 

 to me several specimens of what has since proved to be the 

 true L. palmipes. The prominent characters of the per- 

 fectly palmated feet, and the filamentary appendage to 

 the tail, as well as the differences in the markings, are 

 particularly alluded to in this, the earliest notice of the 

 species as a native of Britain. I kept several specimens 

 for some time in a glass globe, where they throve well ; but 

 as, during the autumn, they lost the caudal appendage, 

 whether from absorption or from its being nibbled off, I 

 waited for further opportunities of describing the species 

 from specimens in their full spring-dress. Meanwhile I 

 gave it the provisional name of L. appendiculatus. Circum- 

 stances occasioned my intention to be postponed from time 

 to time ; until Mr. Wolley discovered the same species in 

 the neighbourhood of Edinburgh, and communicated the 

 discovery to the Zoologist, in a short but satisfactory no- 

 tice, — and to myself in a letter accompanied by numerous 

 living specimens. It is not necessary for me to quote the 

 observations of Mr. Wolley, as they may be referred to in 

 the Zoologist ; in which publication there subsequently ap- 

 peared further communications from Mr. Baker and Mr. 



