33S 



LAKES AND STREAMS 



occasionally other parts of the Balkan Peninsula. In Germany it is not found 

 in the plain east of the Elbe, although west of that river it appears in a few 

 localities. Smaller than the crested newt, it attains a length of 3 to 4 inches 

 only : its skin, during the greater part of the year, is finely granulated, that of 

 the female being somewhat coarser, except in the breeding-season, when it becomes 

 finer, while the male is almost uniformly smooth. 



The common newt (M. vulgaris) is even smaller than the last, 

 rarely exceeding 3 inches in length, and having a perfectly smooth 

 skin. This newt is represented in the Mediterranean countries by a variety, but 

 has otherwise much the same distribution as the crested species, although it ranges 



Common Newt. 



a few degrees farther north, 

 up to 63° N. latitude, 

 the neighbourhood of St. 

 seem to live either in Sweden 

 as in Norway. Its southern 

 same as that of the crested 

 resembles in being absent 



MALE AND FEMALE CHESTED XEWTS 



being found in Norway 

 Although common in 

 Petersburg, it does not 

 or Russia so far north 

 boundary is about the 

 newt, which this species 

 from the south of France, 

 Spain, Portugal, Corsica, Sardinia, and Sicily, although it ranges a little farther 

 south in Greece. In the west the common newt has established itself in Ireland, 

 but the eastern boundary of its distribution is not known. In the spring this 

 newt may be seen every day in ponds, ditches, marshes, and even in muddy 

 bogs and rain-pools all over its area, not only in the plains but in hilly districts 

 and on the spurs of mountain-ranges, such as those of the Austrian Alps, where 

 it is met with at a height of 5000 feet. 



The webbed newt (M. palmata) is a typical western European 

 species, which has spread farther and farther eastward from France. 

 In Switzerland, where it was discovered in the eighteenth century in the Jura, 

 it is met with north and west of the principal mountains, at an altitude of 

 2800 feet above the level of the sea. In German}', where it can be traced down 



Webbed Newt. 



