THE GREAT WATER NEWT. 371 



from the tub, and on examining the leaves which the Newt had doubled and stuck with a sticky 

 secretion, he found that each of them enclosed an egg. 



On looking at one of these eggs, it will be observed that the future Newt, or embryo, is in the 

 centre. It is white, with a yellow tint, and is environed with a glairy matter, to which it is so 

 attached that it can move freely in every direction. Its envelope is membranous, of glassy trans- 

 parence, and is covered with a very clear viscid matter. 



The growth of the embryo is rapid under the influence of warm weather, and in five days, accord- 

 ing to Rusconi, it is bent in. shape, and little knobs are near the larger end, and on the seventh they 

 are evidently the rudiments of gills and legs. By the ninth day, the tail is oar-like in shape, the heart 

 may be seen to beat, and on the next day there are on each side of the head the rudiments of an 

 anterior limb, also claspers besides the gills. In two or three days the eyes are seen, and the gills 

 have become leaflets, and the little one escapes into the water at about the fourteenth day. It moves 

 in a very mechanical way, and hangs on to the first object with its clasping hooks. In about twelve 

 days the fore feet have become lengthened, aad there are rudiments of toes, and red blood circulates in 

 the branchiae, or gill-like leaflets, and the claspers have disappeared ; moreover, there is much volition, 

 and the little thing hides up and rushes after its prey. The hind feet appear on the thirty-fifth day, and 

 attain a good development by the forty-seventh, and the longest gills have as many as twenty leaflets full 

 of vessels. The Tadpole matures on the eighty-third day, and then the gills become smaller, and are 

 soon obliterated, so that in five days, or shortly after, they and the clefts in the neck for the outward 

 passage of water taken in at the mouth begin to be absorbed and covered with skin. It soon respires 

 atmospheric air only, and having thus arrived at its perfect state, it makes efforts to escape from the 

 vessel in which it has been isolated, This species lives in and on the water, and is seldom to be found 

 on land. 



They have, in common with most other Salamandroids, the power of repairing great injuries to 

 the body. Loss of the limbs, tail, and even head, has been followed by a process of repair. 



Mr. Bell has described a straight-lipped Water Newt* which is a rare British species. It has a 

 rough and tubercular skin, more so than in the Great Newt, and its upper lip does not overhang, but is 

 straight. He also places the Common Smooth Newt, or Eft,+ in a genus called Lissotriton, but it may 

 as well remain in the genus Triton, for the only essential differences are that the skin is smooth, there 

 are no pores on the sides, and the crest of the back is continuous with that of the tail. It is very 

 common arid likes clean water, and it feeds on worms, minute niollusca, and water insects and gnats, but 

 it is devoured by larger Newts and fish. They lay on the folded leaf like the Great Newt, but quite as 

 often in the axils of the leaves, and after the tadpole state many quit the water and remain on land. 

 Many of the adults may be found creeping about among the herbage in damp places, or even ventur- 

 ing into damp cellars. The crests are seen in the spring, and are lost in the autumn, when the colours 

 of both sexes become dull. The tips of the crest are red, arid the belly is bright orange in the early part 

 of the year. They lose their skin in a whole piece sometimes, but usually in strips. Their length is 

 about three inches seven lines in large specimens, the tail being one inch and three lines of the 

 whole. 



The Palmated Smooth Newt has the hind feet webbed in the male, and the tail is truncate with 

 a slender end. The beak is flattened, with a raised line on each side. It has been found near Bridge- 

 water, the Isle of Wight, Reading, near Edinburgh, and as far north as Sutherland. It was supposed 

 to be a kind which is found in Switzerland, France, Central Gemiany, and Belgium, but the English 

 species is smaller, its head is flatter and broader, and the low lateral ridges are characteristic. The 

 webbed state of the hind feet, although it diminishes in winter, and the straightness of the back crest, 

 are very peculiar. The filament which ends the tail is from two to four lines in length. 



THE SALAMANDEBS. 



The Spotted Salamander is the type of this genus, || and it has a thick, large head and clumsy body, 

 and a tail which is cylindrical at its outer end. The eyes are large, and the body is of a black colour, 

 with yellow spots, and there are numerous prominent warty growths on the sides. It has a large 



* Triton bilronii. f Triton punctatus. Triton vittatus (Gray) is a variety. Triton palmipes, 



Salamandra maculosa. \\ Salamandra. 



