1886.] Notes on the Life-history of the Common Newt. 21 
bral striz and branchiz with the minute claspers all were visible 
with a good glass. The glairy coverings enlarged with the crea- 
ture’s needs, and by the 28th some had emerged and commenced 
life on their own account. On the goth May the film disappeared 
from the eyes, the gills were free, and what seemed to be thin 
white threads were really the. first appearance of the anterior 
legs, but only by the aid of a powerful glass could the two little 
claw-like fingers be seen. A dark stripe showed from nostril to 
eyes and another on the head, and the whole body was covered 
with fine dottings. 
It is very difficult to know what is the food of these mites, at 
this stage only half an inch long, It can only be the minute 
monads and confervacious spores in the water. The glairy en- 
velopes remained long without decomposition, intact but for the 
cleft by which its occupant emerged. I am half inclined to think 
the young still feed on them, for they hang round them con- 
stantly; I know frog and toad tadpoles will feed greedily on 
these empty shells. 
The little newts would remain motionless for a long time as 
if dead, but if disturbed would rush madly round. The whole of 
the ova did not hatch till the middle of May, so the first out 
must have been laid in March. By the 15th there was little 
doubt in my mind that I had at last solved the problem of the 
spawning of the Diemyctylus. The reddish gills were well © 
fringed, the eyes prominent, the front legs transparent and white 
fingers free, the abdomen shewing the viscera, and the body 
dotted all over. A dark stripe from snout to eyes is, I find, never 
absent in the larva of this species. 
On the 25th I procured a quantity of Lemna or duckweed for 
my aquarium, and it spread all over the surface of the water. 
My little pets delighted in it,and when the sun shone they would 
_ crowd under it in every position, seeming to hang on to the slen- 
der roots! They certainly throve in their leafy home, and flour. 
ished So well that in a month, on the 25th of June, they were an 
inch long, very active, brownish-gray in color, with a series of 
whitish markings where the spots were to appear later. The 
- abdomen alone was spotless. Two fingers and two knobs showed 
in front, and the hind legs were out but the feet only slightly 
‘Possibly the Lemna contained minute spores, or ova of insects, which Served 
them as fresh food. é 
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