ore THE VIVARIUM. 
of these harmless creatures, country people often refusing 
to touch at any price what they call an ask or a water-effet. Some 
of these Batrachians, the Great Warty Newt (I. cristata), for 
instance, have the power of defending themselves, like Toads, 
against the attacks of carnivorous animals, by discharging from 
their skin an acrid and, in a certain sense, hurtful secretion. 
The following quotation taken from an article by Mr. Higgin- 
bottom in ‘‘ Annals and Magazine of Natural History,” for 1853, 
p-. 378, will show the great tenacity of life which these animals 
possess: ‘‘I put two Tritons into some water, and exposed them 
to a freezing temperature during the night; in the morning I 
found the water frozen firmly, with the Tritons enclosed in its 
centre. On thawing, they were lively and flexible. In the second 
experiment there was a piece of ice at the bottom of a circular 
vessel. I placed two Tritons upon it, and then another covering 
of ice, and filled the vessel with water. I exposed it during the 
night in the open air to a temperature of 28deg. Fahr. In the 
morning the whole had become a solid mass of ice 12in. in cir- 
cumference, with the animals in the centre. On breaking the ice 
carefully, they were found completely encased in the ice. I had. 
some difticulty in separating the extremity of one; but, being 
liberated, it used its arms and legs equally well.” 
A Newt (Molge cristata) of my own, attacked by a pike, lost 
one of its fore-limbs, and, within a few weeks after the accident, 
produced another arm and hand in all appearance similar to the 
one it had lost. 
The Prince of Musignano says ‘‘that it is a wonderful circum- 
stance, that an animal so tenacious of life should die with the 
most violent convulsions on having a little salt sprmkled upon 
it.’ The above quotation is taken from Mr. Bell’s ‘‘ British 
Reptiles,” p. 131, second edition. 
The Great Warty or Crested Newt (Molge cristata, Figs. 91 
and 92) is one of the handsomest and largest of its genus, and 
from the rest of which it differs in the formation of its skull, 
haying no fronto-squamosal arch. It is found in the ponds of 
many parts of Great Britain, but not everywhere. It is not 
nearly so common here as Molge vulgaris. The Great Warty 
Newt is also a native of France, Belgium, Holland, Switzerland, 
