C03IM0N SMOOTH-NEWT, 187 



crest of the other were both lost. The Rev. Revett Shep- 

 pard has still farther confused the question ; but, as these 

 mistakes arose altogether from the want of a proper consider- 

 ation of the characters of the group, and of closer observation 

 of the habits of the animals, and as both these points are now 

 cleared up, it is unnecessary to enter farther into the subject. 



It was on this species principally that Spallanzani tried his 

 well known experiments on the reproduction of portions of the 

 extremities and of the tail ; and he found that the same mem- 

 ber will be reproduced several times in succession on being 

 cut off, and this with the bones, muscles, vessels, and nerves 

 belonging to its original state. Its tenacity of life, like 

 that of most other cold-blooded vertebrate animals, is a re- 

 markable feature in its functional character. It has been 

 frozen in a solid block of ice, and when slowly thawed, it has 

 appeared scarcely injured. 



The food of this species is similar to that of the larger 

 species. Like them, it not only eats aquatic insects and 

 small Mollusca and worms, but swallows the tadpoles of the 

 Frog and Toad with great avidity. 



It is almost unnecessary to say that the accusation of being 

 poisonous, so generally believed by the lower classes in most 

 parts of the country, is wholly unfounded. 



The word Eft, or Evet, by which the whole of these ani- 

 mals are designated in many parts of the country, is Anglo- 

 Saxon ; " Efete, — an Eft, a Newt, a Lizard," says Somner. 

 *' I know not," says Skinner, " whether from Ef-an, equalis, 

 from the smoothness and evenness of the skin." Junius sug- 

 gests that Newt is corrupted from an evet, a nevet, a newt. 



The whole of the skin in this species is quite smooth ; 

 there are no tubercles, but on the head are two rows of pores. 

 Tail terminating in a sharp point. The lip is perfectly 

 straight, in which it differs from the next species. The crest of 

 the back and tail in the male are, during the season of repro- 



