THE COMMON NEWTS. 215 



period of full six months ; were inclosed during the 

 space of thirty days in a mass of frozen earth, and yet 

 remained perfectly uninjured by this long abstinence 

 and frost. 



Water, in a state of rest over decayed and putrescent 

 vegetable matter, is peculiarly favorable for the resi- 

 dence of many of the insect world. The eggs that are 

 lodged there remain undisturbed by the agitation of the 

 element, and the young produced from them, or de- 

 posited there by viviparous creatures, remain in quiet, 

 tolerably secure from accidental injuries ; but there are 

 natural causes which render these apparent asylums the 

 fields of ravenousness and of death. To these places 

 resort many of those voracious insects and other crea- 

 tures, which prey upon the smaller and helpless ; for all 

 created things seem subordinate to some more powerful 

 or irresistible agent, from the hardly visible atom that 

 floats in the pool, to man, who claims and commands 

 the earth as his own. But we have no animal that 

 seems to commit greater destruction in these places 

 than the common newt (lacertus aquaticus). In some 

 of these well-stored magazines this reptile will grow to 

 a large size, and become unusually warty, and bloated 

 with repletion ; feeding and fattening upon the unre- 

 sisting 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 causes these shells became fixed, when the 

 animal is drawn up hanging and wriggling 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 



