Reptiles. 2267 



whilst the sagacity of his conjectures was proved by M. Deby, — at least so far as to 

 the true name of the newt supposed to be new. 



Not having seen specimens of Mr. Bell's L. palmipes, I cannot presume to say it 

 is merely a form of L. punctatus ; but I can state that from the characters given of it 

 in his work I had supposed that some newts I forwarded to Mr. Bell were his palmi- 

 pes, which upon examination he himself declared to be punctatus : this I believe I 

 mentioned to Mr. Newman. But it is not only the Lissotriton palmipes of Mr. Bell 

 that he has to re-establish in the new edition of his ' Reptiles ; ' it is to be hoped that 

 he will give further characters of his Triton Bibronii and of Rana Scotica. 



The specimens of the Triton palmipes of Daudin which Mr. Bell first received he 

 named " provisionally " Lissotriton appendiculatus, believing them to be a new spe- 

 cies, until, in a consultation with Mr. Gray, he was induced to consider them a variety 

 of punctatus, an opinion which the gradual disappearance of the most obvious cha- 

 racters in confinement encouraged him to continue to indulge, and it was not until he 

 received a notice of my newts three years afterwards that the " question was re- 

 opened " with him ; but when he saw some of them he at once confirmed the opinion 

 I had ventured to express to him, that they were a species hitherto undescribed in 

 Britain, and by so doing he asserted the value of his first impressions as communi- 

 cated to Mr. Baker in 1845 (Zool. 2198). 



Mr. Gray's Triton vittatus (Bell's Brit. Rept., p. 132) appears not to be the T. 

 palmipes of Daudin, yet the semi-palmation of the hind feet agrees with the condition 

 of T. palmipes, Daud., whilst the caudal filament is being absorbed. The " tail 

 pieces" (Zool. 2231) admirably illustrate the most striking differences of the two 

 kinds of newt. 



In a full description there are many other points to be noticed than those hitherto 

 mentioned : one that might be overlooked I will name here, viz. the colour (as well as 

 certain of the proportions previously alluded to) of the bones ; they are, I believe, more 

 yellow in palmipes than in punctatus. The difference in size of the two newts does 

 not appear to me so very marked as M. Deby would indicate, except in moor-land, 

 where, as far as I have observed, palmipes is smaller than elsewhere, and less bright 

 and distinct in colour and markings, and with its vernalia (we want a proper word) 

 less developed. M. Deby's parallel tables are very useful, and put the matter in a 

 clear light; if he had added a description of T. alpestris it would have conferred an 

 additional obligation on those of us who have a difficulty in meeting with the works 

 of the continental erpetologists. The females of T. palmipes, Daud., have not yet 

 been described in the ' Zoologist.' When compared with the females of T. puncta- 

 tus, their heads seem broader and shorter, and the toes of their hind feet are for the 

 most part shorter ; the males also have the former, but not so evidently the latter cha- 

 racter. As to the colour, if in a genial situation, the belly is usually a delicate milk- 

 and-water white, tinged more or less with yellow towards the middle line ; the back 

 and sides of the body and tail are of a dark olive-green, and in some, particularly very 



not Mr. Gray, in his description of vittatus, omitted all notice of the peculiarity of the 

 tail, which is so marked a feature in palmipes. I cannot for a moment suppose this 

 would have escaped a naturalist whose knowledge of species and ability to seize spe- 

 cific distinctions stands unrivalled. I therefore can only attribute the peculiar foot 

 given in the figure to inaccuracy on the part of the draughtsman. — Edward Newman. 



