368 ANIMAL REPRODUCTIONS. 
whitifh colour, and refembles the fineft gauze ; 
indeed it is almoft as fine as a fpider’s web. 
What poets have figured of phantoms may be ap- 
plied to the fpoil of newts. The whole body 
appears : we fee the hands, fingers, feet and tail, 
but all in a fhade floating in the water. 
When the period of change approaches, the 
fine fkin is obferved detaching from the body. 
The head firft lofes it; then the reft of the ante- 
‘rior part; next the middle, and the pofterior 
part. Sometimes the fpoil, caft by the head, 
forms like a gauze collar or cravat around the 
neck ; or it is adjufted on the head, like a ca- 
puchin or head drefs. 
The commencement of feparation, from the 
back and belly, is difcovered by viewing the newt 
obliquely from one fide, in a ftrong light. ‘The 
ikin of the belly is further detached, becaufe it 
falls down by its own weight. 
Approaching fpoliation is recognifed by con- 
fpicuous and unequivocal fymptoms. The back, 
viewed obliquely, appears whitifh, and as if co- 
vered with a fpider’s web. ‘This is the effect of 
the fpoil beginning to feparate. If clofely ex- 
amined with the naked eye, or a magnifier of — 
fmall power, it feems compofed of minute fcales 
covering the callofities or tubercles, which fha- 
green the body of the newt. But, when “ex- 
amined with more attention, and in a favourable 
light, 
