316 THE COMMON NEWTS. i 



commands the earth as his own. But we have 

 no animal that seems to commit greater destruc- 

 tion in these places than the common newt (la- 

 certus 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 un- 

 resisting 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 in- 

 troduced 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 cause these shells be- 

 came 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 about the month of April, if the weather be 

 tolerably mild, we see gamboling upon the surface 

 of the sheltered pool ; and every schoolboy, who 

 has angled for a minnow in the brook, is well 



