124 TJie Field Naturalist's Quarterly May 



pelled by " Nature study " can we expect, if ever, to have 

 this old-world park once more enlivened and beautified by 

 the presence of its native birds. 



We are indebted to Rev. C. F. L. Barnwell for the latest 

 photograph of the Chartley Cattle, from which our plate is 

 taken. 



Note. — Since the above paper was written we hear that 

 the Chartley herd has become reduced to only a dozen 

 head. 



Newts in Spring. 



By Rev. Gregory C. Bateman. 



All the members of the Salamandridae are very interesting, 

 and some of them are most puzzling to those who take an 

 interest in natural history. The only members of this fairly 

 large family which are found in Great Britain are three 

 species of the genus Molge — viz., the great crested newt 

 (Molge cristata), the common or smooth newt (M. vulgaris), and 

 the palmate newt (M. pahnata), whose adult representatives 

 are now making preparations to leave their winter quarters 

 in cavities under stones, holes in walls, crevices in rocks, 

 hollows in trees, and occasionally in damp cellars in houses. 



In spring, like birds, newts are seen at their best, the 

 males being particularly attractive in their dress of many 

 and harmonious colours, and their magnificent crests. 

 Very different is their appearance at this time of the year 

 to that when, as having obeyed the command " Be fruitful 

 and multiply," they left the water and retired into the greater 

 privacy of a terrestrial life. 



Mature newts live in pools, ponds, lakes, and slow-running 

 streams during the months of April, May, and June. And 

 it is while leading an aquatic life that they reproduce their 

 kind. To us (and to them also, I expect) this is the more 

 interesting period of their existence. 



As these Batrachians, having no gills in their perfect state, 

 are obliged from time to time to come to the surface of the 



