INTRODUCTION 
in the adult state, all the seven species of amphibians 
upon the British List visit water for the purpose of 
spawning, and their young are at first exclusive water- 
dwellers. When in the latter state they have gills, and 
later breathe by means of lungs. Some kinds, however, 
retain their gills during all their various stages, but 
none of these occur in Britain. When Frogs and Toads 
have become mature, and hence have developed lungs, 
they have the habit of immersing themselves in water 
with the head just protruding at the surface so as to take 
in a sufficient supply of air. Even so, they can and do 
remain well below the surface for quite a long time, and 
if a pond is frozen in early Spring, and they are im- 
prisoned beneath the ice, they emerge after a thaw none 
the worse for their adventure. Newts, on the other 
hand, are much more reconciled to an aquatic life, and 
although our British species do not possess any gills in 
the adult state, they appear to experience no difficulty in 
remaining submerged in the same position under water 
for hours at a stretch. All the amphibians with which 
we are concerned have four legs when in the final stage 
of development, although limbless amphibians do exist, 
but not in our own country. There are several ana- 
tomical features of interest in Frogs, Toads, and Newts, 
but these need not detain us as, at best, they can only be 
described in dry-as-dust terms, and that is not the idea 
aimed at in these popular books, but rather succinct 
life-stories of the animals under review. Far be it for us 
to write, for example, that ‘‘ the hind legs have an 
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