78 REPTILES AND BATRACHIANS. 



in May were decorated with very high crests, which in two or 

 three days were much diminished, and in another week were 

 barely discernible. As in the larger species, the crest is adopted 

 for the courting season, and departs with it. 



The skin of this little newt is entirely free from warts, hence 

 its name " smooth newt." Boulenger's synopsis of the species is 

 the head longer than broad, and with three distinct longitudinal 

 grooves upon it, also a dark median streak ; the snout elongate, 

 and the body rounded. The fingers and toes of the female are 

 shorter than those of the male, which are lobate ; also with two 

 small carpal and tarsal tubercles. These are the little newts that 

 climb the glass so skilfully, no doubt aided in clinging by those 

 tubercles. The globe they inhabited was what we may call very 

 high-shouldered, with a narrow mouth ; so that before they could 

 get out, they were almost topsy-turvey, like a fly on the ceiling, 

 and most perseveringly did they manage this gravitation, going in 

 a zigzag fashion to break the ascent, like a horse dragging a 

 weight up a hill. Often you might perceive that it was not easy 

 to get foothold ; and often they fell back and down, but, nothing 

 daunted, began again. Several escaped entirely, or fell a prey to 

 Toadums, but sometimes were found, submitting to be caught 

 without resistance, apparently glad to get home again. In their 

 natural state they wander an immense distance from water. Mr. 

 F. Waterhouse informed me that he found some in his garden at 

 Putney, and they must have travelled a long way, and climbed 

 over a wall at the end of their journey. I arranged a little sort 

 of rockwork, well out of the water, and with only pools of the 

 latter in the globe, so that during the summer they could take 

 their choice ; and for the most part they preferred to be high and 

 dry. Very small worms they ate most readily or small slugs ; but, 

 like the frogs, they take no notice of what is offered them unless 

 it moves, and then do not use much exertion to secure it. One 

 little newt fared so badly from its own slowness and timidity that 

 it became a mere skeleton, painful to behold. Very rarely could 

 one entice it to eat, and as early as September it showed a dis- 

 position to hibernate, though still keeping out of the water. It 

 even survived some very severe frost, and now, at the last moment 

 of writing (February 1888), is still alive, though its tiny bones can 

 all be counted. One very small frog in the same globe, thin for 

 similar reasons, succumbed to the frost, two larger frogs (though 

 the same age and brood) have kept under the rocks, and are 

 alive and strong. The surviving warty newt has also kept above 

 ground, and none have displayed any inclination to bury them- 

 selves in the " mud " at the bottom of the globe. On two occa- 



