THE PHOTOGRAPHY OF REPTILES. 51 



by the enamoured swain, to show what an immense 

 field for pictures exists in the life history of this single 

 family. 



The writer has not infrequently been asked when 

 he obtains his sitters. It is with a view to answering 

 some such question on the reader's part that he gives 

 the following suggestions for the capture of newts. It 

 is useless to search for newts except in the spring time. 

 It is difficult then to look for them in a likely place 

 without finding them. Taking the common (smooth) 

 variety first, the newt catcher should start, armed with 

 a net and a receptacle for the newts, to the nearest 

 pond or stagnant ditch which contains the common 

 vernal starwort. This plant will be seen figured in 

 the illustrations. He should then secure a netful 

 from the water with a swift sliding movement, and look 

 it carefully over. If, after two or three trials, he has not 

 secured some newts, he is unlucky, and must move on 

 to the next known spot of a similar nature. The 

 common newt is so widely distributed that it is almost 

 impossible to avoid him when one employs this method 

 at the proper time of year. 



The great newt has, in the writer's experience, 

 the peculiarity of confining himself to ponds on a 

 clayey soil. A brickfield pond is as likely a spot as 

 any to find him in, and, where it is impossible to 

 use a net and great newts are known to exist, a very 

 fair form of sport can be obtained by fishing for them 

 with a worm attached to a thread. No hook is 

 necessary, and the landing will, after one or two trials, 

 be found of a fairly simple character. 



