258 



COMMOX WATER- NEWT. 



Lacerta Aquatica. L. olivaceo-fusca nigro maculata, subtus 

 crocea, cauda ancipiti lateribus sinuata. 



Olive-brown Water-Newt, spotted with black, with orange- 

 coloured abdomen, and sharp-edged sinuated tail. 



Lacerta Aquatica. L. cauda teretinscula mediocri, pedibus mu- 

 ticis, palmis tetradactylis. Lin. SysL Nat. p. 370. 



The Smaller or Common Water-Newt. Nat. Misc. 11. pi. 412. 



THIS, which in England occurs in almost every 

 soft stagnant water, is a much smaller species 

 than the preceding; and though the different spe- 

 cimens occasionally vary very considerably as to 

 the cast of colour, yet the animal may at all times 

 be very readily distinguished from the former. 

 Its general length is about three inches and a 

 half, and it very rarely exceeds that of four inches 

 at most. The male is distinguishable at first sight 

 from the female by its very conspicuous dorsal crest 

 or process, which is broader in proportion, more 

 strongly elevated, and more regularly sinuated 

 than that of the preceding species: the sinuations 

 are continued to the very tip of the tail on the 

 upper part, and take place likewise in a similar 

 proportion on the under part as far as the junction 

 of the tail with the abdomen ; whereas in the for- 

 mer species the upper part alone of the tail can 

 properly be said to be crested : this wide process, 

 or sinuated part, is remarkably transparent, and 

 when viewed with a lens of even moderately mag- 

 fying power, exhibits very distinctly the ramifi- 

 cations of the blood-vessels dispersed through it : 



