584 



SALAMANDER. 



part of the native animals of that quarter of the world, 

 to be totally different from those of the eastern con- 

 tinent; but in what they differ has been so very 

 vaguely ascertained, that it is quite impossible to say 

 any thing about the matter that could be interesting 

 to any ordinary reader ; and therefore we shall not 

 enlarge upon them. 



There is, however, one animal, a native of many 

 parts of the British islands, and by no means a rare 

 one, though, from its retired habits, not often seen, of 

 which some notice appears to be necessary, the more 

 so that its place in the systematic arrangement of 

 animals is by no means clearly established. This is 

 the common land neiut or eft, a very pretty and very 

 harmless little creature, though, like the salamander, 

 it has a sort of " Cain's mark" upon it, and whoever 

 meets it thinks he does service in slaying it. It is 

 found chiefly in dark and rather moist places, under 

 stones and rubbish, or in other situations of conceal- 

 ment. It is seldom met with above four inches in 

 length, and it is usually of smaller dimensions. The 

 upper part of it is yellowish-brown with dusky spots 

 and lines, and the under part reddish with dark spots. 

 The skin has a peculiarly delicate appearance, and 

 the animal altogether appears to be as perfectly 

 harmless as one can well suppose an animal to be. It 

 does not appear that the skin exudes any acrid mat- 

 ter like that of the real salamander, and it cannot 

 bite or inflict any injury whatever. 



The place of this animal in the system has not 

 been very clearly established ; and indeed it is some- 

 what singular, that an animal which is so common 

 should be so imperfectly understood. The older 

 writers, as a matter of course, classed it with the 

 lizards, as they did every reptile that had four feet and 

 a tail ; and more modern ones have classed it with 

 the water newts, which are tritons, according to the 

 proper distinctions of the two branches of the sala- 

 mander family. As far, however, as its habits are 

 known, they would lead us to place it with the land 

 salamanders. It is, though a smaller animal than 

 these, a much more handsome and active one ; but 

 its places of abode and its habits, so far as these are 

 known, are exactly the same. Though usually seen 

 about damp cellars and outhouses, the shade and not 

 the damp appears to be that which it prefers ; for it 

 is to be met with under stones and rubbish in places 

 which are very dry, and no one has ever found it 

 in the water in any stage of its existence. If put 

 into water, it shows the same impatience of that liquid 

 as is shown by the salamander ; and, though it is 

 sometimes found in places which are very damp, the 

 water does not adhere to its skin, but stands upon it 

 in drops, or runs off without leaving any impression. 

 This is not the case with the naked skin of any ani- 

 mal whose habit is decidedly aquatic. The greater 

 part of these, if not the whole of them, have the skin 

 protected from the action of the water ; but it is 

 always by a mucous secretion, and not by any merely 

 repellent power in the epidermis, such as there evi- 

 dently is in the common land newt or eft. 



The manner in which this singular creature is re- 

 produced is not known ; and this is the chief point 

 which wants clearing up before it can be fully settled 

 whether it is to be classed with the land salamanders 

 or with the tritons. The analogies, so far as they 

 go, would lead us to conclude that it belongs to the 

 former, and that it is an ovoviviparous reptile ; but 

 in such a case the analogy of habit is hardly sufficient. 



This, however, is certainly the probability ; and though 

 nothing definite about the reproduction is known, 

 there is another means by which some light might be 

 thrown upon the true nature of the animal. We be- 

 lieve it is a general, if not a universal, law that the 

 members of oviparous reptiles, especially those which 

 pass through a tadpole state, are produced again after 

 they have been destroyed by accident ; and that 

 those of ovoviviparous ones are not so readily re- 

 stored, or rather not restored at all. In this we 

 believe the water newts follow the same law as the 

 water salamanders ; and if it is found that the land 

 newt follows the law of the land salamanders, then 

 the classification may be held as established upon 

 sufficient physiological grounds. At present, how- 

 ever, even this is not settled ; and thus the newt 

 remains a puzzle in natural history. 



It is also a creature which is looked upon with 

 great suspicion. It is not accused of poisoning, 

 biting, or doing any mechanical harm ; but it is al- 

 leged to be very fond of creeping down the throats 

 of people when they fall asleep near the places which 

 it frequents. Not only this, but it is supposed that 

 the germ of the newt is often swallowed along with 

 water ; and that, coming to maturity in the stomach, 

 it gives rise to the most terrible maladies. In remote 

 parts of the country, we have often heard of fearful 

 suffering, well understood, as the people thought, to 

 proceed from the horrible calamity of swallowing a 

 newt. We never indeed heard of any living newt 

 being found in the interior of a single human body 

 upon dissection ; but the people to whom we allude 

 looked upon dissection, for whatever purpose it might 

 be performed, with at least as much horror as they 

 did upon newts. 



AQUATIC SALAMANDERS {Tritons). These have a 

 general resemblance to the land ones in their form, 

 though in them the tail is adapted for being a swim- 

 ming instrument, which is prevented in the others by 

 its round shape and its limited power of motion. In 

 their physiology, however, as well as in their habits, 

 they differ much from the land ones. Though in the 

 adult state they all breathe air by means of lungs, 

 yet they are constant residents in the water. Their 

 tails are compressed laterally like the tails of fishes, 

 or rather of tadpoles ; and they swim by working 

 them right and left. They are chiefly found in shal- 

 low and stagnant waters, very rarely in running 

 streams, and never in the sea. They chiefly live at 

 the bottom, under stones, and in other hiding places ; 

 and their food is understood to consist of larvae and 

 very small animals. They are perfectly harmless in 

 every sense of the word; but the same dislike is 

 shown to them as to the land salamanders and the 

 land newts, only they are not supposed to be fire proof. 



They are oviparous, and the mode of their produc- 

 tion bears a considerable resemblance to that of the 

 toads. The eggs are fecundated at the time of their 

 exclusion, and they are united together in strings or 

 chaplets, by which means they adhere to aquatic 

 plants, to stones, and to other substances in the water. 

 These eggs are deposited early in the season ; and in 

 many of the species they are hatched in about fifteen 

 days. The young have tufted gills and also claspers, 

 by means of which they can keep their hold upon 

 substances under the water until they acquire strength 

 for swimming. They all remain much longer in the 

 tadpole state than the land salamanders, which are 

 nearly or wholly out of that state before they are 



