22 Woodside. 



parental obligations have been fulfilled, and egg-laying is 

 finished It exchanges its food of water-bugs and water- 

 beetles for slugs, worms and insects, and is thus of great 

 service to the farmer, In Kent, however, the ignorant 

 labourers make it responsible for a variety of dreadful 

 actions poisoning being one of the commonest charges 

 brought against these harmless creatures. Snakes are among 

 their greatest enemies, and consider them a great delicacy. 

 The newts themselves are not fastidious in their taste, but 

 in the water the tables are frequently turned on the newt ; 

 for, although small beetles are its legitimate quarry, a newt 

 may occasionally be seen in the ferocious and merciless 

 clutches of that dreadful scourge of our ponds and ditches, 

 the diverbeetle, who, fixing its jaws deep into the fleshy 

 parts of its victim, never looses its hold until the life-juices 

 have been sucked from it. 



Are there any more interesting facts about the newt ? 

 Yes ; the warty newt takes two years at least to come to 

 maturity. During this time, in common with most of its 

 relatives, it frequently changes its skin. As the young newt 

 gets larger and larger, its skin stretches until it can stretch 

 no farther ; then the creature ceases eating ; a new skin 

 forms under the old one, which, as the two become separated 

 from each other, contracts and cracks, the newt finally 

 slipping out in its new dress, leaving behind the old one, 

 filmy and slimy, but very complete and perfect. This goes 

 on during the whole term of its natural life, although, as 

 the newt grows older, the process is less frequently per- 

 formed. In the late autumn the newt crawls into a hole or 

 chink, or even into mud at the side of a pond or ditch, in 

 which it hybernates, remaining in an inactive state until the 



