254 REPTILES AND BATRACHIANS 



habits the West and South of France, Spain, and Portugal. 

 The breeding male has a straight-edged, much elevated, 

 dorsal crest, replaced by a longitudinal groove in the female. 

 Fingers and toes are free in both sexes. The tail, which is 

 crested above and below, is much compressed, and a little 

 longer than the head and body. The skin is covered above 

 and below with tubercles. The general colour is bright 

 or dark green above, marbled with brown or black ; the 

 crests of the back and upper portion of the tail are al- 

 ternately barred with black and white ; a yellow or orange 

 vertebral streak is always present in the female ; the fingers 

 and toes are green, with black annuli ; the lower surfaces 

 are brown or greyish, with more or less distinct darker 

 spots, and speckled with white. 



Although the Marbled Newt usually takes to land after 

 the breeding season, which extends from March to May, 

 it nevertheless does quite well in aquaria, surviving several 

 years of captivity. 



In localities where both the Marbled and Crested Newts 

 occur, hybrids between the two species are occasionally 

 found, and these were, when first discovered, described 

 as a new species, under the name of Tritofi blasii. The 

 various characters of this hybrid are exactly intermediate 

 between those of M. marmorata and M. cristata. The 

 upper surfaces are dark green, marbled with dark brown, 

 while the belly is orange, marbled with black. These 

 hybrids have been recently obtained by Peracca and 

 Wolterstorff by crossing captive specimens. 



The Japanese Newt, M. pyrrhogastra, which is common 

 in Japan, and is also found in certain localities in China, 

 has the under-surfaces of a bright carmine, with or without 

 black spots. The body of this newt is quadrangular in 



