THE COMMON NEWTS. 215 
period of full six months; were inclosed during the 
space of thirty days in a mass of frozen earth, and yet 
remained perfectly uninjured by this long abstinence 
and frost. 
Water, in a state of rest over decayed and putrescent 
vegetable matter, is peculiarly favorable for the resi- 
dence of many of the insect world. The eggs that are 
lodged there remain undisturbed by the agitation of the 
element, and the young produced from them, or de- 
posited there by viviparous creatures, remain in quiet, 
tolerably secure from accidental injuries ; but there are 
natural causes which render these apparent asylums the 
fields of ravenousness and of death. To these places 
resort many of those voracious insects and other crea- 
tures, which prey upon the smaller and helpless ; for all 
created things seem subordinate to some more powerful 
or irresistible agent, from the hardly visible atom that 
floats in the pool, to man, who claims and commands 
the earth as his own. But we have no animal that 
seems to commit greater destruction in these places 
than the common newt (lacertus aquaticus). In some 
of these well-stored magazines this reptile will grow to 
a large size, and become unusually warty, and bloated 
with repletion ; feeding and fattening upon the unre- 
sisting beings that abound in those dark waters wherein 
it loves to reside. It will take a worm from the hook 
of those that angle in ponds ; and in some places I have 
seen the boys in the spring of the year draw it up by 
their fishing-lines, a very extraordinary figure, having a 
small shell-fish (tellina cornea) attached to one or all of 
its feet ; the toes of the newt having been accidentally 
introduced into the gaping shell, in its progress on the 
mud at the bottom of the pool, or designedly put in for 
the purpose of seizure, when the animal inhabitant 
closed the valves and entrapped the toes. But from 
whatever causes these shells became fixed, when the 
animal is drawn up hanging and wriggling with its toes 
fettered all round, it affords a very unusual and strange 
appearance. 
Water, quiet, still water, affords a place of action to 
a very amusing little fellow (gyrinus natator), which 
