136 SALAMANDRIDJE. 



the bright and pleasing tints which characterize him during 

 that season. The red tips to the crenations of the crest and 

 tail are of course no longer seen as these parts become ab- 

 sorbed ; but the colour of the body is also more obscure, and 

 the spots less distinct ; the belly, which has been of a bright 

 orange passing into red, is now paler and less vivid. 



It is probable that the period at which the young lose their 

 branchiae varies in some degree according to circumstances 

 connected with temperature, food, and other causes ; as they 

 are sometimes taken with the branchiae still remaining on 

 them, when conspicuously larger than other individuals, 

 which have lost these organs.* The growth of the young 

 animals during the summer and autumn is very rapid ; so 

 that they attain nearly their adult size the first year. 

 Very early in the winter the crest of the male begins to 

 make its appearance, and by the beginning of the year it is 

 conspicuous. 



The result of a partial and hasty observation of these cir- 

 cumstances has been that naturalists have described the same 

 species, in different conditions, as being specifically distinct. 

 Shaw, in his General Zoology, asserts that the Common 

 Newt is " altogether a terrestrial species," and contests even 

 the statement of Linnaeus, that it inhabits water during its 

 larva state. " I can," proceeds Dr. Shaw, " safely affirm 

 that I have more than once met with specimens in perfectly 

 dry situations, so extremely minute as scarcely to equal half 

 an inch in length, which appeared to differ in no respect, 

 except in magnitude, from the full-grown animal." Now it 

 is here evident that he had met with the young and the adult 

 of this species when they had left the water for their autumnal 

 visit to the land, and the branchiae of the one, and the dorsal 



* There is in the Museum of the Zoological Society an interesting Series of 

 Specimens exhibiting these facts. They were collected by Mr. Blyth, and 

 the bottles are furnished with his observations. 



