370 THE VIVARIUM. 
not for its brilliant eyes and its apparently aimless dartings from 
spot to spot. By means of claspers it can cling to almost any 
object against which it happens to strike during these short and 
rapid journeys. In from two to three weeks, according to circum- 
stances, the claspers are absorbed, and are replaced by the fore- 
limbs, which quickly develop. ‘“‘ At this time” (f, Fig. 90), says 
the late Mr. Thomas Bell in his “ British Reptiles,” “the 
branchiz offer one of the most beautiful and elegant objects in 
nature, as well as one of the most interesting. Observed even 
FIG. 90.—METAMORPHOSES OF THE NEWT. 
with the naked eye, the leaf-like division of these organs presents 
a most pleasing subject of contemplation; but, viewed in the 
microscope, the branchial circulation excites the greatest delight 
and surprise.” 
A short time after the appearance of the hind limbs the gills 
begin to diminish in size, and the lungs begin to develop until 
by the end of the autumn, as a rule, the young Newt has attained 
the shape, but not the size, of its parents. It has then passed 
trom the condition of a fish to that of a Batrachian. 
