292 



NEWTS AND SALAMANDERS. 



toes are devoid of any connecting webs. The smooth and shining skin is covered 

 on the upper-parts with pores, from which exudes a viscid and acrid secretion, 

 having decidedly poisonous properties. The yellow markings on the head, back, 

 and tail are arranged in two longitudinal series, broken up into more or less 

 irregularly-shaped patches. The species is an inhabitant of Central and Southern 

 Europe, Algeria, and Syria ; and is the one which from time immemorial has been 

 dreaded, not only on account of its undoubtedly poisonous properties, but likewise 

 owing to the extraordinary superstition that if thrown on a fire it would not be 

 consumed. Frequenting moist and shady spots, either in the mountains among 

 rocks, or in valleys and forests, the salamander passes the daytime in a kind of 

 torpid condition, only issuing forth from its hiding-places among stones or roots of 

 trees either during rainy weather or after nightfall ; its skin being quickly dried 

 up if exposed to the direct rays of the sun. Its movements on land are slow and 

 sluersrish, its o-ait being a crawl with a marked lateral movement ; but in water 





SPOTTED SALAMANDER (nat. size). 



the creature swims strongly, mainly by the aid of its tail. Although frequently 

 found in the neighbourhood of its fellows, this salamander can scarcely be termed 

 a sociable creature ; and it is only during the breeding-season that the two sexes 

 live in company. From the slowness of its own movements, it is only slow- 

 moving creatures such as snails, worms, and beetles that the salamander can 

 capture for its food ; although it is stated to occasionally kill small vertebrates. 

 Generally a large quantity of food is consumed, after which there is a long fast,, 

 sometimes lasting for as much as a month. During the pairing-season, which is 

 in April or May, both sexes betake themselves to the water, when the females 

 collect the spawn deposited by the males. Although the young are usually born 

 alive, it occasionally happens that eggs are laid by the female, from which the 

 young almost immediately make their escape. The number of tadpoles produced 

 at a birth is very large, as many as fifty eggs being frequently found within the 

 body of the female; while an instance is on record where upwards of forty-eight 

 young were born within four-and-twenty hours. More generally, however, from 



