96 



Batraciilvns.- 



-KEPTILES.- 



-Bateaciuans. 



of fire, to pass through it unhurt, and even to extinguish 

 it in its course ; nay, it was even asserted that when it saw 

 the flame, " this daughter of fire with the body of ice" 

 cliarged it as an enemy which it knew how to conquer. 

 This behef of tlie power possessed by this animal over 

 fire is of very ancient date, for Aristotle mentions it as 

 an opinion entertained by the common people previous 

 to his time. " The Salamander," he says, "is an evi- 

 dence that the bodies of some creatures are not wasted 

 or consumed in the fire, for (as some say) it walketh in 

 the fire and extinguisheth the same." It was also 

 asserted by some of the early writers, that a kind of 

 fireproof cloth could be fabricated of the skin of the 

 Salamander ; that a portion of this salamander-cloth 

 was sent by a Tartar king to one of the popes, and 

 that the holy napkin of our Saviour is preserved in it. 

 Marco Polo, who mentions this cloth, observes shrewdly 

 enough that it was no doubt made of some mineral 

 substance, most probably asbestos, which the old writers 

 actually call Salamander's wool. Another belief was 

 that the Salamander was exceedingly venomous. " The 

 biting of it," says Topsell, " is very exitial and deadly, 

 and therefore the Fixiich men use this speech upon the 

 biting of a Salamander : — 



' Si mordu t'a une aress.ade, 

 Freus ton linceuil et ta flassade,' 



That is, if a Salamander bite you, then betake you to 

 the coffin and winding-sheet. The Rhmtians do ordi- 

 narily aflirm, that when a man is bitten by a Sala- 

 mander, he hath need of as many physicians as the 

 Salamander hath spots. And Arnoldus saith, that it 

 hath in it as many venoms and means of hurting as it 

 hath colours distinguished one from another." Such 

 arc only a few of the many absurd stories which wore 

 believed in by our forefathers, and which still linger 

 among the peasantry of many parts of Europe. No 

 wonder that •' the sight of it is abominable and fearful 

 to man." And j-et this poor little reptile is in fact 

 harmless and inoflensive. It is from six to eight inches 

 long, is " thi dier and fuller than a lizard, having a 

 pale white belly, and one part of their skin exceeding 

 black, the other yellow, like verdigris, both of them 

 very splendent and glistering, with a black line going 

 all along their back, having upon it many little spots 

 like eyes." 



The Salamander inhabits principally Central Eu- 

 rope, and it occurs in many parts of France. During 

 the day it lives generally under ground, but at night 

 it leaves its subterranean retreats and sallies forth to 

 seek food. This consists of worms, small molluscs, 

 and insects, &c. In winter Salamanders retire to 

 some hollow tree, some hole in an old wall or in the 

 ground, where they coil themselves up and remain in 

 a torpid state till spring revives them. In such places 

 numbers of them are sometimes to be met with inter- 

 twisted together. The skin of the Salamander is 

 largely covered with warty glands. These secrete a 

 milky fluid of a glutinous and acrid nature, like that 

 of the common toad. When irritated, it can, it is 

 said, shoot out this liquid to the distance of several 

 inches; and it was the abundance of this secretion 

 that no doubt gave rise to the idea that it could 

 quench the heat of fire and flame. As from some 



experiments, made by Laurenti, this milky fluid is 

 found to be poisonous to lizards and some other small 

 animals, it is to its existence, no doubt also, that we 

 owe the accounts of its fearful poisonous powers. Its 

 walk is slow and heavy, and though it has been said 

 to be very courageous, its want of fear for the presence 

 of man, or other larger animals than itself, would 

 appear to arise rather from stupidity than from auda- 

 city. The Salamander utters no ciy, and except at 

 the time of producing its young, it is quite terrestrial 

 in its habits of life. When thrown into the water, it 

 tries immediately to get out again, and comes to the 

 surface every moment to respire. Unlike most of the 

 other Batrachians, the Salamander is ovoviviparous. 

 The young are developed in the oviducts of the mother, 

 remaining there till fully formed. When exi'luded 

 from the parent, they only difler from her in appear- 

 ance by the possession of branchia; or gills, by the tail 

 being compressed, and by their being of a black colour. 

 They are deposited in the water by the mother, where 

 they live a purely aquatic life for some time, till losing 

 their gills they become sufficiently matured to live on 

 dry land. The young are pretty numerous, amounting 

 sometimes to forty and even fifty. M. Joly observed 

 a Salamander bring forth twenty-five living young in 

 one day. 



The aquatic species of the family are much more 

 numerous than the terrestrial. They are generally 

 known in this country by the name of Newts or Efts, 

 and are distinguished by their tail being always flat 

 instead of round, and by the absence of the glands on 

 the sides of the head, called the parotids. They are 

 entirely aquatic in their habits, pjassing almost their 

 whole life in the water. Several species are natives 

 of this country, and some of them are very abundant. 

 THE COMMON WARTY NEWT or Gr.EAT Wateu 

 Newt (Triton cri.'ikitiis) — represented in Plate 3, fig. 

 2 — is one of the most common, and the largest of all 

 the British species. When adult it is about six inches 

 long. It has a flattened head, an obtuse and rounded 

 muzzle, and a slightly pendulous upper lip. The body 

 is continuous with the head, the neck being only dis- 

 tinguished by a small fold of skin beneath. The body 

 is thick, round, and corrugated, and the skin is thick 

 and covered with small warts or tubercles. The tail is 

 about two-fifths of the entire length, considerably com- 

 pressed and keeled on both upper and under edges. 

 In the breeding season a crest appears on the back of 

 the male, ruiming the whole length, and separated from 

 the corresponding crest of the tail by a notch at the 

 loins. The Great Water Newt is of a blackish colour ; 

 the upper parts being of a blackish or yellowish-brown, 

 with black round spots, while the under surface is of a 

 iiright orange, with round bl.ick spots. The sides are 

 dotted with white, and in the male more especiall}', 

 the sides of the tail are of a beautiful shining pearly 

 white. It is a native of ponds and large ditches in 

 many parts of England, and is also found in several 

 places on the Continent. It lives upon aquatic insects 

 and other small animals. In spring a great part of its 

 food consists of the tadpoles of the common frog, of 

 which it appears to be very fond ; and, according to 

 Professor Bell, it devours also the smaller or smooth 



