THE ANNALS 



AND 



MAGAZINE OF NATURAL HISTORY. 



[SECOND SERII^.] 

 No. 72. DECEMBER 1853. 



XXXIV. — On the British Tritons. 

 By John Higginbottom, F.R.S. 



[With two Plates.] 



These observations are the result of an unremitting attention 

 to the natural history of the Triton during five years. 



Regarding the physiology of each individual species of animal 

 as a type and example of physiology in general, I imagine that 

 the science would not be advanced more certainly than by an 

 undivided investigation of one, and that a most interesting 

 example. 



My steps have been guided by the w^orks of Dr. Rusconi 

 and Professor Bell, and the following observations will be found 

 curtailed or extended, as I imagine I have arrived at the same 

 results as these two authorities have done, or added some new 

 facts or views to what was previously known. 



As the result of my observation, I may premise that I have 

 not been able to find more than two species of Triton in the 

 midland counties of England ; that these, produced in water, are 

 furnished in a peculiar manner with respiratory organs, first for 

 aquatic respiration, and in the second place for atmospheric 

 respiration ; that after leaving the water they chiefly remain in- 

 habitants of the land and breathe atmosphere for no less a period 

 than three years uninterruptedly, passing through changes and 

 states in their slow growth, which have misled naturalists into 

 the opinion that there are more species than really exist ; that at 

 the expiration of the third year the animal in its mature state 

 betakes itself for a second time for a season to the water, but 

 solely for the purpose and during the period of reproduction ; 

 and that this view of the subject, the result of long and assiduous 



Ann. ^ Mag. N. Hist. Ser. 2. Vol. xii. 26 



