68 REPTILIA. 



tribute this apparent weakness in the creature to its being untowardly 

 aroused from a partial torpidity, like the others, or to its presence in the 

 cold spring-water being accidental. 



Sept. 23, 1846. — I saw one of these newts, in ])r. Lankester's, London, 

 take a common house-fly offered it on the point of a pen, and was told that 

 it ate three of these flies daily ; unless they were alive it did not care for 

 them. These animals lived for months with Dr. L.* 



3IarcJu 1846. — Again looking over my specimens of newts collected 

 about Belfast, I am not satisfied about their species. They certainly do 

 not agree with any of Bell's — in fact they do not strictly come under 

 either his Triton or Lissotriton. 



Their crest is continuous in the male [Lissotriton). 



They are slightly warty {Triton). 



They have a series of distant pores along each side {Triton). 



The upper lip overhangs the lower at the sides, which it is described as 

 not doing in L. jwnctatus. 



The general appearance of my specimens is just that of L. jnmctatus, 

 Bell, p. 1 32, but viewed critically they difi"er as above. 



The palmated Smooth-newt, Lissotriton pahnipes, Bell. 



In 1841 I published the following note in the Annals of Natural His- 

 tory, vol. vii. p. 478. 



" Lissotriton palmipes, Bell ? Palmated smooth-newt. On questioning 

 Mr. William M'Calla, of Roundstone, Connemara, (a most intelligent col- 

 lector of objects of Natural History,) respecting the species of newts ob- 

 served by him, he replied — ' I am positive of there being two species of 

 Triton in this country, one of which is the T. jnmctatus of Jenyns's 

 Manual, and the rarer with us ; the more common species is by far 

 larger and of a richer colour ; it is nearly double the size of T. punctatus ; 

 the crest is far larger and is not notched ; the feet are webbed. To con- 

 vince you that I have not confounded the young and adult of the same 

 species, I may state that I observed them in the breeding season, and met 

 with females of both species.' A fair inference from these remarks, I 

 think, is, that Lissotriton palmipes is the animal alluded to. My corre- 

 spondent had not seen Mr. Bell's work on British Reptiles," 



Mr. M'Calla subsequently informed me that he had not found this 

 animal in Connemara, but in " the plain district " of Galway. 



I have not obtained any further information relative to its existence in 

 Ireland. It was first distinguished, at least as British, by Mr. J. E. Gray, 

 and was described in Jenyns's Manual, in 1835. 



* A newt lived about nine years in a fern-house belonging to Dr. Ball ; it had 

 no access to water, and never during that time acquired the fins necessary for 

 properly assummg its aquatic fimctions.— Ed. 



