NEWTS. 369 
seems to hunt about for the leaf of some water weed suited to her 
needs. Sometimes she is not contented to simply see, touch, and 
smell the leaf under her observation, but she must bend it, too, as 
if to test its pliancy. When she is satisfied that a particular leaf 
will answer her purpose, she backs towards it as if to sit on its 
edge, and then, holding it with her feet, folds it, and deposits an 
egg within the fold. Having accomplished this part of her 
task, she presses, sometimes with her mouth, 
the leaf gently to the egg, so that every 
part of the folded leaf adheres to the egg. 
After a short period of rest the female 
Newt looks for another suitable leaf, and 
repeats the operation just described. She 
will generally choose for this purpose leaves 
of the following plants: The Canadian 
Water-Weed (Anacharis alsinastrum), the 
Starwort (Callitriche verna), the Water 
Speedwell (Veronica anagallis), and, in 
captivity, the Italian Water-Weed (Val- 
lisneriu spiralis). Sometimes the Newt will 
utilise, for the protection and hiding of her 
eggs, any blade of grass which may be dip- 
ping in the water. 
Fig. 89 shows leaves of the Starwort 
folded round some Newts’ eggs in different 
stages of development. The egg, at first 
very small, is surrounded with a glutinous yg. g9 — Leaves oF 
envelope, in which it floats or rotates. As VERNAL GREATER 
ace : STARWORT ENFOLD- 
the embryo within the egg begins to grow, ING EGGS OF NEWT 
and becomes elongated, the leaf in which ‘a Dae 
the egg is wrapped gradually unfolds. In 
the course of a few days, more or less, according to the tempera- 
ture of the water, the embryo becomes folded upon itself, and 
the gills gradually appear on each side of the neck of the 
future Newt. 
The little tadpole, when first hatched, is so very slender and 
transparent that in even a small vessel it is no easy matter to find 
it; indeed, it would often escape observation altogether were it 
2B 
