32 REPTILES AND BIRDS. 
The Crested Newt (7Zriton cristatus) is frequently found in the 
neighbourhood of Paris; the skin of its back is rough and warty, 
of a brownish colour, with large black spots and white projecting 
points ; the belly has black spots upon an orange ground. 
The Dutch traveller, Sieboldt, has introduced a species of Aquatic 
Salamander, which inhabits the mountain lakes of Japan. This 
species 1s remarkable for its gigantic growth. Instead of being the 
size of those indigenous to Europe, this Batrachian is four feet and 
a half in length, and weighs fifty pounds. 
Magnificent specimens of this gigantic Salamander, the Szeboldtia 
maxtma, may be seen by the visitors to the London Zoological 
Gardens. The largest of them measured and weighed as above 
(March 3, 1869). An analogous large fossil species was described 
as the homo diluvit testis / 
The transformation of the tailed Batrachians, from the tadpole 
condition to the air-breathing and four-footed state, is one of the 
most interesting exhibitions of Nature, and one which every one 
may witness. We cannot in our brief description have a more 
trustworthy guide than Professor Rymer Jones, who selects the water 
newt (777ton cristatus) as an example :— 
‘“‘Immediately before leaving the egg,” he says, “this tadpole 
presents both the outward form and internal structure of a fish. ‘The 
flattened and vertical tail, fringed with a broad dorsal and oval fin ; 
the shape of the body and gills, appended to the side of the neck, 
are all apparent; so that were the creature to preserve this form 
throughout its life the naturalist would scarcely hesitate in classing it 
with fishes properly so called. 
“When first hatched it presents the same fish-like body, and 
rows itself through the water by the lateral movement of the caudal 
fin. ‘The only appearance of legs as yet visible consists in two 
minute ,tubercles, which seem to be sprouting out from the skin 
immediately behind the branchial tufts, and which are, in fact, the 
first buddings of anterior extremities. Nevertheless, to compensate 
to a certain extent for the total want of prehensile limbs, which after- 
wards become developed, two supernumerary organs are provisionally 
furnished in the shape of two minute claspers on each side of the 
mouth ; by means of these the little creature holds on to the leaves 
which are under water. 
“Twelve days after issuing from the egg, the two fore-legs, which 
at first resembled two little nipples, lave become much elongated, 
and are divided at their extremity into two or three rudiments of 
fingers ; the eyes, which were before scarcely visible, being covered 
