SIGHT — FIELDWORK AND EXPERIMENTS 43 



your entomological assistant. I well remember once carrying 

 out some observations with a South American Giant Toad 

 when a friend of mine, a keen moth collector, had set up his 

 lamp on a very favourable night. He was intrigued when my 

 toad sat on the sheet picking up with great rapidity common 

 moths and beetles. He was not so enthusiastic when a par- 

 ticular moth which he much wanted for his collection 

 alighted just to the side and rear of the avid toad. My friend 

 was advancing with a pill-box all ready for capture — but the 

 toad beat him to it. Turning round with a speed with which 

 one would not credit a toad as big as a small plate, its tongue 

 flicked out quite four inches and my friend's prize was 

 snapped up right from under his outstretched hand ! His 

 language was livid, and I removed the toad. Fortunately for 

 our friendship, and future co-operation, he did get another 

 individual moth of the same species ; but he looked on my 

 amphibian pets with a rather jaundiced eye for ever after. 

 However, this incident taught him something about a toad's 

 eyesight and speed of tongue movement so he did add to his 

 knowledge if not to his collection. 



Newts and salamanders, for all practical purposes, may 

 be regarded as equally useful for experiments designed to 

 test their acuity and range of vision. Salamanders spend little 

 time in water, going there only for the purpose of spawning ; 

 newts, of course, stay in the water longer — over-wintering 

 there in some cases — but both are creatures that can feed on 

 land. Our newts demonstrate their visual ability well if 

 observed in water during the months of April, May and 

 June. They can be satisfactorily kept in well-planted aquaria 

 with perforated zinc covers to prevent escapes, for they are 

 great climbers. These conditions need in no way be regarded 

 as abnormal, for newts will feed quite naturally in tanks and 

 any observations made are quite reliable. To satisfy myself 

 as to which is the dominant sense in newts I have kept many 

 of various species; and though their sense of smell is good, it 

 is their eyes that are mainly depended upon for catching 

 food. Newts are equally at home in feeding by day and by 

 night. Not more than one newt should be housed in one tank, 

 otherwise it will be very hard to keep track of the movements 

 and behaviour. 



