278 



LIFE, IN ITS HIGHER FORMS. 



tail with its fin — is lost. It is not thrown off, but its 

 substance is gradually absorbed into the body. As this 

 process takes place during the growth of the legs, when 

 it is completed, the Tadpole has become a little Frog. 

 The minute orifices which admitted the water into the 

 gill-chamber have, at the same time, become closed, and 

 breathing is henceforth performed exclusively by means 

 of lungs, which are capacious sacs, subdivided internally 

 into large cells. 



Such, then, is the metamorphosis which obtains in the 

 most elevated forms of this Class, as our common Frog 

 and Toad; and it may be witnessed with slight precau- 

 tions by any one who will take the trouble to collect a 

 mass of spawn from the nearest ditch, and transfer it to a 

 fresh-water aquarium. In the Newts, which are no less 

 common, the metamorphosis is less complete, and we per- 

 ceive in their ultimate condition a closer alliance with 

 FrsHES ; since their limbs are small and feeble, their broad 

 finuy tail is retained through life, and is the principal organ 

 of locomotion; for, in general, they continue more exclusively 

 aquatic in their mode of life than the adult Frog or Toad. 



The eggs of the Newts are not deposited in a mass, but 

 singly, and that under interesting conditions. Professor 

 Bell thus describes the process in the case of our largest 

 and finest species> the Common Warty-newt (Tiiton cris- 

 tatus), the males of which are conspicuous enough . in the 

 vessels of the dealers in aquatic animals, in Covent Gar- 

 den Market and elsewhere, by their roughened blackish 

 upper parts, their high notched back-fin, and their rich 

 orange under-parts, spotted with black. The female is of 

 less brilliant hues, and is destitute of the tail fin. 



