6 THE SCOTTISH NATURALIST 



NEWTS ON THE EASTERN BORDERS. 



By George Bolam. 



In response to the editorial invitation in the Scottish 

 Naturalist (1914, p. 166) I had intended sending this 

 note some time ago, but from one cause or another it has 

 been rather delayed. The Common Newt {Molge vulgaris^ 

 is well distributed and plentiful in most suitable places on 

 both the English and Scotch sides of the Border, and being 

 so well known calls for no further remark. It is the " Asp " 

 of our schoolboys, when found in its winter retreats under 

 logs and stones, and as such is still commonly held to be 

 " venomous." 



The Palmated Newt {Af.paljnata) is much less common, 

 and, though often numerous where it occurs, seems to be 

 rather local. By most country people it is not discriminated 

 from the last species. Nearly twenty years ago my son 

 found it plentifully in an old quarry hole on the main road 

 near Burnmouth, about five miles to the north of Berwick ; 

 and it was shortly afterwards discovered to be fairly common 

 in that neighbourhood, and traced to Ayton, Reston, and 

 St Abb's. Elsewhere in Berwickshire I have seen it at 

 Paxton, and near Duns; in Roxburghshire it occurs at 

 Yetholm, and doubtless elsewhere. In Northumberland it 

 has long been known as an inhabitant of the ponds left by 

 the old lime-workings about Scremerston, Ancroft, and 

 Lowick, but seems to be curiously local in distribution, often 

 plentiful in one pool and absent from another, apparently 

 quite similar, and perhaps scarcely a mile away. It has 

 been traced also to Wooler and the Cheviots, and occurs in 

 at least one small pond near Carham, on Tweedside. To 

 follow it farther south takes us beyond our proper survey, 

 but there, likewise, the Palmated Newt occurs in some 

 places and is as strangely absent from others. 



The Great Warty Newt, or ' Triton,' as it is called in the 

 neighbourhood of Berwick {M. cristata), is also a somewhat 

 local species, though common in some localities on the 

 Borders. In Berwickshire I have seen it at Paxton, Chirnside, 



