XXI] 



URODELA 



525 



by three species, all belonging to the genus Molge (Triton) and 

 popularly known as Efts or Newts. Molge cristata, the Warty Eft, 

 and Molge vulgaris, the Common Eft, are found in ponds and 

 ditches all over the country, but Molge palmata is much more local. 

 We may select Molge cristata, the Greater or Warty Eft, or Crested 

 Newt, as a type of the anatomy of Urodela (Fig. 253). 



The animal is about five or six inches long, half the length being 

 made up of the tail, which has a continuous fringe of skin, the 

 median fin. This fin in the male extends forwards to the head 

 dorsally and is greatly enlarged in the breeding season, but it is at 

 all times devoid of fin-rays. 



FIG. 253. Molge cristata, the Warty Eft. From Gadow. 

 1. Female. 2. Male at the breeding season with the frills well developed. 



The skin is clammy, owing to the secretion of the dermal glands : 

 it is dark coloured above and yellow spotted with black below. The 

 opening of the cloaca is placed behind the hind-legs: it is a 

 longitudinally placed oval slit which in the male has thickened lips. 



The fore-limbs have only four fingers, the innermost corresponding 

 to the human thumb being wanting, but there are five toes in the 

 hind-limb. The animal when out of water crawls feebly along/but 

 it swims actively in the water by means of its vertically flattened 

 tail. The head is flattened dorso-ventrally and of somewhat oval 

 outline, and the gape is of moderate extent. The eyes are small 

 and project but little. The nostrils are very small and situated 

 at the extreme front end of the snout. 



If the newt be carefully watched when out of the water the skin 

 of the underside of the head between the two sides of the lower 



