COMMON SMOOTH NEWT OR EFT. 153 



are often the subject of persecution in rural dis- 

 tricts. Schoolboys, especially, consider them 

 fair game for torture, and adults view its in- 

 fliction with complacency, or at lea$t without 

 protestation, because not a few still entertain 

 superstitious or fabulous notions either of their 

 poisonous properties, or their secret association 

 with the " black art." In towns, since aquaria, 

 vivaria, and such "parlour menageries" have 

 become fashionable, newts and lizards have been 

 better known and appreciated, and have even 

 been taken under the protection of the fair sex. 

 In common with the warty newt, this species is 

 slow in arriving at maturity, and there is every 

 reason to believe that the remarks made under 

 that species, as to development, &c., will also 

 apply to the present. In the first edition of 

 BelPs ' ' British Reptiles " considerable confusion 

 was made of the smooth newts, on account of 

 the different appearances presented by them at 

 different periods of their career. In the second 

 edition most of the errors were corrected, but 

 one was still maintained, to which Dr. Gray has 

 referred in the following terms : " Mr. Bell, 

 believing that the form of the upper lip afforded 

 a good character for the distinction of the species 

 of these animals, divides them into two species, 

 thus, (1.) ' Lissotriton punctatus, upper lip 

 straight, not overhanging the lower. (2.) Lis- 



