GREAT WATER-NEWT. 297 



even sometimes entirely wanting, in the female : 

 tlie eyes are of a bright gold- colour ; the head ra- 

 ther small than large ; the limbs short ; the fore 

 feet divided into four, and the hind into five toes, 

 all of wliich are destitute of claws. This animal 

 is by no means an infrequent inhabitant of the 

 clearer and colder kinds of stagnant waters, and 

 is also occasionally met with in damp and shady 

 situations, under trees, hedges, &c. Sec, It is, in 

 this country at least, a much rarer species than 

 the small or common water-newt, with which it 

 appears to have been confounded by some au- 

 thors, and among others by the Count de Cepede, 

 in his History of Oviparous Quadrupeds. The 

 male is most accurately represented in the pre- 

 sent publication, on the same plate with the Sala- 

 mander, with which, as before observed, it seems 

 to have a considerable degree of affinity. It lives 

 principally on insects. Though an innoxious spe- 

 cies, and perfectly incapable of injuring any of 

 the larger animals, yet it appears, from the experi- 

 ments of Laurenti, that the natural exsudation or 

 secreted moisture of its skin is fatal, like that of 

 the Salamander, to the small varieties of the La- 

 certa agilis, several of which, on biting this ani- 

 mal, soon became paralytic on the fore legs, were 

 seized with a general weakness, and died without 

 any convulsive motions. 



