AMPHIBIANS. 223 



ing it distasteful, serves as a means of defence from 

 those creatures which would otherwise prey upon it. 

 These glands in the Newt are smaller than in the Toad, 

 and the secretion is therefore much less marked. Many 

 people imagine that Newts spend their lives in the 

 ponds where they are found in the summer ; this, how- 

 ever, is by no means the case. It is true they spend a 

 longer time there than the other Amphibians, but they 

 are quite as much lung-breathers as the Frogs and 

 Toads, and the adults quit the water and live on land 

 for quite eight months out of every twelve. They then 

 keep secluded under stones, in cool and sheltered situa- 

 tions, and never venture abroad except by night. They 

 are sometimes found in damp cellars, etc., and are then 

 often mistaken for Lizards. The latter, as we have 

 seen, prefer warm and sunny situations, and would never 

 be found in cellars ; besides which their skins are covered 

 with scales Newts have none. If Newts are kept in 

 an aquarium they will live in it happily enough till the 

 end of the breeding season, but then begin to manifest 

 uneasiness, and will escape from the water at the first 

 opportunity. This instinct is particularly strong in the 

 females, who will die unless they can get to land ; the 

 males have been known to survive even when kept the 

 whole year in the water. The male Great Warty Newt 

 undergoes a wonderful transformation in the breeding 

 season, when not only does he become resplendent in 

 gorgeous colours, but develops a high crest resembling 

 a cock's comb, running along the back from the neck to 

 the end of the tail ; it is highest over the centre of the 

 body, lower over the hind-legs, rising again on the tail. 

 This crest reaches its greatest perfection about May, or 



