20 Notes on the Life-history of the Common Newt. [January, 
had stout bodies and broad heads, and still retained their exter- 
nal gills, though they had partially acquired the colors of the 
adult. The experiment was then discontinued but the specimens 
all preserved.” 
This only came under my notice in October, ’84, when I was 
delighted to find Professor Verrill’s statement verified my own 
experience, which I will now relate: 
On the 6th April, ’84, a quiet cool morning, whilst sweeping 
my net in a pond at Jamaica ridge, I detached some bunches of 
ova from several dead branches that lay in the water. They 
varied in size from two and a half to six inches in diameter, con- 
taining from 25 to 150 eggs each, all enclosed in a glairy mass. 
The eggs were brown above, pale beneath, each in a greenish 
double envelope, but so transparent that the development was 
distinctly visible. 
GAGES nS 
This is a most perfect arrangement for the protection of the _ 
ova; a space lies between the envelopes and each can be sepa- 
rated in its own globe of glaire from the rest. These coverings 
are tough and not easily injured, and so firmly attached to the 
branch I had difficulty in loosening the whole without breaking 
it up. It would take a very strong wind or current to dislodge 
these carefully protected embryos. 
They were all deposited on the south side of the pond where 
the sun shone in between the trees, about six or eight inches _ 
below the surface, in very clear water. I brought them home in 
a pail of water and placed them in an aquarium. I prepared for 
_ them with aquatic plants and débris from the pond. I thought I 
had secured the spawn of the A. punctatum, not thinking of — | 
Diemyctylus, which is mostly accredited with depositing one or 
two eggs separately in a folded leaf. From the appearance of the | 2 
ova some must have been laid the preceding night, while others 
showed a curious mass of small granulations. 
In a few days a sort of break up of some of the ova took 
place, if I may so express it. The embryo assumed a fish-like 
appearance with a blunt head, curled up tail and a thick solid — 
body. During the next fourteen days the brown body enlarged, 
head was very dark, outline of eyes visible, snout broad and j 
thick and if shaken the little creature displayed considerable irri- 
tation by a twitching of the tail. By the 2oth the body was 
elongated and curved, the flattened tail showing a fin, the verte- — 
