CH. VIII] FROGS, TOADS, AND NEWTS 297 



the frogs and toads in possessing a slender body and long 

 tail with which they swim rapidly, and which retains the 

 lateral line sense organs throughout life. Their legs are 

 short, front and hind about equal in length, and of minor 

 importance in aquatic locomotion. In general appearance 

 they resemble lizards, which belong to an entirely dif- 

 ferent class, the Reptiles, and are sometimes mistaken for 

 them. They may however be at once distinguished by 

 the absence of claws from the toes no British, and hardly 

 any other Amphibians possess any nails or claws. More- 

 over the skin of a newt is soft and more or less moist, 

 while that of lizards is hard and dry, and the tail of 

 a newt is flattened from side to side so as to be narrowly 

 elliptical in section, but a lizard's tail is circular in such 

 view. Also the tongue of a newt is white and fleshy, 

 that of a lizard black, thin and forked. The habits of 

 the two are entirely different, for though newts often 

 wander far from water they avoid intense heat and are 

 sluggish in their movements, whereas lizards love to bask 

 in the sun, and are exceedingly swift and agile. 



All three species of newt are carnivorous, the food con- 

 sisting of worms, small molluscs, insects, and occasionally 

 small fish, tadpoles and even small individuals of their own 

 species. Respiration is carried on in the same manner as 

 in the frog. The breeding season is in the early summer. 

 There is no union between the two sexes, but patches of 

 spermatozoa are deposited by the males and then seized by 

 the females and conveyed to. the cloaca. The pale yellow 

 eggs are laid singly on the edge of the leaf of some water 

 vfQQ^Polygonumpersicaria usually, which is folded together 



