3o8 THE WORLD OF ANIMAL LIFE 



This group of animals is almost confined to the northern hemi- 

 sphere of the world. About one hundred and twenty species are 

 known. 



The common newt is as good a type of the group as one 

 could wish. 



The best way to catch newts is to fish for them with a small 

 net, pushing it backwards and forwards among the weeds at the 

 side of a pond. 



But they may sometimes be caught in a simpler way still. All 

 that is required is to tie a strong thread round the middle of a 

 worm, and drop it into the water where a newt is likely to be 

 hiding. The hungry little animal is almost sure to seize the worm, 

 and then, by a quick jerk, it can be brought out of the water before 

 it has time to loose its hold. 



Where newts are very plentiful, two are sometimes caught at 

 once in this way, each having seized an end of the same worm. 



Newts feed upon worms and the various small insects which 

 they find swimming about in the water. They even eat tadpoles, 

 too, their first cousins, soon after they come out of the egg, and 

 before they are too big to be swallowed. 



To see a newt eating a worm is a very curious sight. It does 

 not seize it by one end, as we might expect, and then slo^'ly 

 devour it; but takes it by the middle, and swallows it in a suc- 

 cession of gulps. 



The newt is a perfectly harmless creature. Its teeth are so 

 small and feeble that it could not possibly bite us, and it is not 

 poisonous in any way. 



If we catch a number of newts, and keep them for a time in 

 a vessel of clear water, we are sure before very long to see pieces 

 of empty skin floating at the surface. The reason is that the 

 newt, just like the snakes, toads, and frogs, throws off its skin 

 every now and then, a fresh one having been formed underneath it. 

 Even the toes of the tiny little paws are drawn out from their 

 old covering, and we may often notice the empty skin of one of 

 the feet floating by itself, and looking like a delicate fairy glove. 



The eggs of a newt are laid in a very curious manner. They 

 are not fastened together into a large, jelly-like mass, like those 



