USELESS HABITS IN TWO BRITISH NEWTS. 221 



forcing itself under a flat stone. If, in the autumn, a few Newts 

 be left in a large box, which is perfectly empty, they will be 

 found in a very short time together in a large heap, each Newt 

 having come along and thrust itself in under another, until 

 those originally on the bottom of the box become raised to the 

 top of the heap. This observation probably explains the fact that 

 Snakes and Frogs have been found, during hybernation, around 

 each other in a mass.* Whether Newts hybernate sometimes in 

 this way I do not know. The flat nose of the Newt never fails to 

 respond to the stimulus of contact with one surface applied to 

 another so as to leave a suitable crevice. 



The tail is used efficaciously as a prehensile organ, but the 

 action of the tail resembles the stereoscopic reflex, as it is an 

 instinctive response to surface contact, for it is seen that, while 

 it apparently with intelligence hooks the tail around an object, 

 it shows in the matter of unhooking a remarkable absence of 

 intelligence. I have seen it struggling to walk forward in vain 

 for minutes at a time, simply because its tail was coiled around 

 an upright post. The fore legs are never used to hold food, and 

 can be only very roughly employed to scrape acid or other 

 stimulus from the head. 



Newts, in captivity, soon lose their natural wariness. The 

 commotion at first caused among freshly captured Newts in a 

 tank when someone approaches soon ceases after a short period 

 of captivity. 



The Newt's persistency at all times strikes the observer, but 

 the use of such a descriptive term applied to the Newt is very 

 misleading, as it signifies conscious determination to overcome 

 a difficulty which it at least partially understands. The Newt's 

 " persistency" is a recurrence of the already mentioned tendency 

 to repeat an action over and over again. It is an expression of 

 the superiority of its bodily activity over the activity of its 

 cerebral cortex. 



In its primary instincts — those of breeding and feeding — the 

 Newt has been shown to display a certain impetuosity which is 

 significant when compared with the usual monotony and sluggish- 

 ness of the Newt's existence. But this very impetuosity — an 



* Dr. Gerald Leighton's ' British Serpents,' p. 60. 



