{^"i ' 1 Davey, English and Japanese Newts in Victoria. 137 



and sides of body are of a lovely turquoise-blue; the tail is 

 alternately barred vertically with blue and black, and there 

 are often splashes of crimson on the shoulders of both sexes. 

 These colours are only produced when newts are living under 

 ideal conditions, and are never obtained by newts kept in 

 glass ac[uaria. This newt is decidedly a more voracious 

 feeder than M. cristatus, and much more aggressive, and 

 certainly more aquatic, than most newts. 



English newts spend fully six months of the year continu- 

 ously on land, whereas the Japanese species will remain in 

 the water the whole year; but during the very cold weather 

 they undergo a partial hibernation, as they seldom rise to the 

 surface for air, whereas during warm weather they rise to 

 the surface at frequent intervals. 



An interesting instance of limb reproduction came under 

 my notice. A male Japanese newt, M. pyrrhogaster, on 

 arrival, in March, 1913, had a hind leg badly damaged; this 

 later on became very swollen, and finally dropped off close 

 up to the body. After an interval of six weeks a tiny black, 

 pimple-like excrescence appeared at the spot the leg had 

 fallen from. From this point five tiny toes sprouted; these 

 gradually increased in size ; later on a wrist appeared, then a 

 knee-joint, and now (October, 1914) there is little to dis- 

 tinguish it from the leg on the opposite side of its body, 

 excepting that it is slightly smaller and much darker in colour 

 and the toes are much more webbed. 



Japanese newts have been busily engaged egg-laying from 

 August last until the present time (October). The embryo 

 of the egg is white on one side and brown on the other; 

 in this they differ from those of the English newts, the 

 embryos of which are entirely white. A good number of 

 the larvae have already emerged. The only apparent dif- 

 ference between these and those of M . cristafus at this stage 

 is that the eyes are much more pronounced in M. 

 pyrrhogaster than in the latter. 



Egg-laying is carried on in much the same manner as with 

 other newts. A female selects some aquatic plant 

 for the purpose — the denser the better — and places a 

 single tgg, in a fold of a leaf, hiding the egg 

 as much as possible from sight. The necessity for 

 all this care is at once apparent, as the males are most 

 assiduous in their search after eggs, of which food they are 

 extremely fond, and once an egg is discovered in a leaf this 

 is torn and dragged at by the male until at last it can 

 reach the egg, when, with one snap of the jaws, the egg 

 disappears. Both sexes will also greedily devour the young 

 larvae, and it is probably this cannibalistic trait that prompts 

 the female to lay her eggs singly, folded in leaves of water- 

 plants, and the denser these are the better suited for her 



