British Reptiles and Amphibians 



moved down the street each cow came from its shed 

 and joined the ever-increasing herd. Slowly the kine 

 moved instinctively towards the common, and spread 

 over the pastures. The herd-boy would drop beside a 

 friendly bush and fashion a whip-handle, or watch the 

 birds and insects that flitted across his domain. Now 

 and again he would entice the Newts from the sluggish 

 pools, and it was while thus engaged the writer formed 

 this herd-boy acquaintance. The boy did not know 

 the name of the species he captured, but yet he knew 

 how to keep them alive until he tired of them. Some 

 days, he said, he slept for hours, and did nothing but 

 walk to and from the village. In his herd there were 

 four ponies and an aged horse, the latter being a 

 pensioner. He surmised the Newts bit the latter and 

 crippled it some days. The cows, according to his 

 view, were never harmed, nor the ponies, only the aged 

 mare. A week before I met him he had had to leave 

 the horse on the common over night, and in the 

 morning he found a dead Newt by its side, which he 

 said the horse had killed while warding off an attack. 

 The old horse was too frail to defend itself, I pointed 

 out, but the herd-boy had his grandfather's word for 

 it that Newts were deadly enemies of every living 

 thing that was aged. As he spoke, under some poplar 

 trees, the mare was standing idly. It looked worn- 

 out, frail, and unable to move its stiffened joints. 

 Hard work and the feebleness incidental to old age 

 had made the village nag worthless as a financial asset. 



62 



