4958 Fresh-water Aquarium. 



readily taken, and even a crumb of bread or biscuit : after awhile it 

 would raise its head, and seem to expect something eatable when I 

 approached the vessel, but in taking it showed no great abilities ; if 

 the food sank on being thrown in, the newt, which usually floated with 

 its limbs extended, never attempted to descend for it, and when the 

 wire was thrust under to recover the food it would bite eagerly again 

 and again at the middle of the wire, where it met the surface, without 

 seeming to discover its want of nutritious qualities : for the first two 

 or three months it lived constantly in the water, after which a slice of 

 cork was thrown in, and then, having a choice, it abode on it for the 

 greater part of the day : not unfrequently it appeared to be affected 

 with palpitation or shortness of breath — if such an affliction extends 

 to the newt family — at least the throat would show as many as 240 

 beats in the minute, a very different rate to its usual slow respiration ; 

 on these occasions it always kept the head out, and was generally on 

 the cork, and if food was offered it would be refused, or taken with 

 reluctance : on two occasions I found it looking very much as if seized 

 with an attack of cramp, the limbs drawn up and the eyes closed with 

 a very painful expression : a very interesting sight was presented when 

 it happened to be resting at the side of the vessel with a foot touching 

 the glass ; the circulation of the blood was then clearly visible with a 

 pocket lens, but though the red corpuscles were plainly seen returning 

 from the points of the toes, I failed to detect them proceeding 

 thither. 



The movements of the newt appeared to me to be influenced by the 

 electrical state of the atmosphere, at least more so than the leech, one 

 of which I kept in a bottle a year or two ago without observing any of 

 those weather-wise indications for which it enjoys a reputation : it 

 appeared its practice to descend in the water and keep there during a 

 storm. On the 9th of July there was thunder and lightning in the 

 evening, and I found the newt, as 1 expected, totally submerged a full 

 inch below the surface : on the 23rd of the same month it was very 

 gloomy, and thunder at a distance, and the little meteorologist, true to 

 his habit, was under water, and remained so for three hours, so far as 

 was observed : I made the same remark several times, and only on one 

 occasion, when the thunder was very distant and unaccompanied with 

 lightning, did I find it resting on its floating island. Three small 

 sticklebacks (taken on Wimbledon Common, and conveyed home by 

 rail in a Preston-salts bottle, held out of the carriage window to 

 keep the contents cool) were introduced at an early period, but none 

 survived two months : their habits were very interesting, and their 



