374 Mr. J. Higginbottom on the British Tritons. 



during the summer season. I found a Triton asper in the tad- 

 pole state, with large branchiae and an expanded tail. I kept it 

 in a glass globe in the open air in water (in which were aquatic 

 plants) during the winter months, and found that it retained 

 the branchiae until the succeeding February, when it died. The 

 following month (March) I had brought to me two tadpoles of 

 the smooth species in the same condition, with the persistent 

 branchiae and expanded tail, and on searching a pool where this 

 species particularly abounds I found several others. I perceived 

 that these could not be of that season^s growth, for at this period 

 the full-grown Tritons had not come to the water, the breeding 

 season not having commenced. I considered that these tadpoles 

 must be the produce of the ova deposited late in the former sea- 

 son, as in June or July; and this view I think was corroborated 

 by their branchiae disappearing in June, nearly three months 

 earlier than in those produced from the ova deposited in the 

 spring. These observations appear to prove that the Triton 

 does not grow during the winter, and that in genial weather, 

 between five and six months are required for the tadpole to arrive 

 at its full development. 



IV. The uninterrupted extension of terrestrial life through three 

 whole years, in a state of activity in the summer and in a state 

 of hibernation during the winter season. 



I think the young generally travel a greater distance from the 

 water than the older ones, and do not, like them, assemble and 

 become coiled together. They are often found in damp cellars, 

 old wells and similar places, and under flat stones, and sometimes 

 deep in the earth, single, and far remote from any pools or 

 water. It is from this circumstance I imagine, and from their 

 long continuance out of water, that in Britain a terrestrial 

 species of Triton has been supposed to exist by some natu- 

 ralists, and is often called by the common people the ground newt. 

 The Triton does not commonly return to the water until the 

 expiration of the third year, when they are so far advanced 

 towards maturity as to be able to reproduce their kind. 



It was not until the third year of my investigations that I 

 could account for the different sizes of the Triton existing at the 

 same period of time. At the end of March I found several of 

 the Triton asper in holes under the embankment of a pool, the 

 least of them not quite 2 inches in length ; and a few days 

 afterwards, that is, in the first week of April, I took out of the 

 water the full-grown Triton nearly 6 inches in length and 

 beautifully crested. On carefully comparing those of the smaller 

 size with some which I had kept during the winter, I perceived 

 that they corresponded with those of one yearns growth. On 

 examining and comparing others, I found that there were two 



