316 THE COMMON NEWTS. 



no animal that seems to commit greater destruc- 

 tion in these places than the common newt (lacertus 

 aquations) . In some of these well-stored maga- 

 zines this reptile will grow to a large size, and be- 

 come unusually warty, and bloated with repletion ; 

 feeding and fattening upon the unresisting beings 

 that abound in those dark waters wherein it loves 

 to reside. It will take a worm from the hook of 

 those that angle in ponds ; and in some places I 

 have seen the boys in the spring of the year draw 

 it up by their fishing lines, a very extraordinary 

 figure, having a small shell-fish (tellina cornea) 

 attached to one or all of its feet ; the toes of the 

 newt having been accidentally introduced into the 

 gaping shell, in its progress on the mud at the 

 bottom of the pool, or designedly put in for the 

 purpose of seizure, when the animal inhabitant 

 closed the valves and entrapped the toes. But 

 from whatever cause these shells became fixed, 

 when the animal is drawn up hanging and wrig- 

 gling with its toes fettered all round, it affords a 

 very unusual and strange appearance. 



Water, quiet, still water, affords a place of action 

 to a very amusing little fellow (gyrinus natator), 

 which, about the month of April, if the weather be 

 tolerably mild, we see gamboling upon the surface 

 of the sheltered pool ; and every schoolboy, who 

 has angled for a minnow in the brook, is well ac- 

 quainted with this merry swimmer in his shining 

 black jacket. Retiring in the autumn, and re- 

 posing all the winter in the mud at the bottom of 



