156 OUR REPTILES. 



Though the children in the nursery sing thus 

 of the dormouse, it is equally applicable to the 

 newts. In the early spring they emerge from 

 their places of concealment, and the mature 

 animals seek the water to pass a tripled honey- 

 moon in an aquatic state. 



The eft, in common with other reptiles, casts 

 its skin at certain, or perhaps uncertain, periods 

 of the year. Mr. Guyon has thus described the 

 process, from his own observation : 



The operation was nearly completed, the skin being 

 pushed down the body in a ring, by which the hinder legs 

 were, to use an Irishism, handcuffed to the tail. The snout 

 was principally used in pushing it down, and the tail was 

 scarcely free when the animal seized the skin with its mouth, 

 and in half a dozen gulps swallowed it. This act occupied 

 nearly a minute, during which three filmy gloves, the integu- 

 ments of the paws, were projecting from the mouth. Al- 

 though a tremendous yawn testified to the fatigue of the 

 performance, the newt made no objection to concluding the 

 meal with a scrap of roast mutton.* 



From Mr. Higginbottom's remarks one might 

 conclude that the mode of depositing the ova 

 was the same in this instance as in that of the 

 warty newt, and that each ovum was deposited 

 separately in the fold of a leaf. To this conclu- 

 sion Mr. Kinahan dissents, and observes that he 

 has seen the ova of the smooth newt deposited 



* The Zoologist, p. 6210. 



