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NEWTS AND SALAMANDERS. 
toes are devoid of any connecting webs. The smooth and shining skin is covered 
on the upper-parts with pores, from which exudes a viscid and acrid secretion, 
having decidedly poisonous properties. The yellow markings on the head, back, 
and tail are arranged in two longitudinal series, broken up into more or less 
irregularly-shaped patches. The species is an inhabitant of Central and Southern 
Europe, Algeria, and Syria; and is the one which from time immemorial has been 
dreaded, not only on account of its undoubtedly poisonous properties, but likewise 
owing to the extraordinary superstition that if thrown on a fire it would not be 
consumed. Frequenting moist and shady spots, either in the mountains among 
rocks, or in valleys and forests, the salamander passes the daytime in a kind of 
torpid condition, only issuing forth from its hiding-places among stones or roots of 
trees either during rainy weather or after nightfall; its skin being quickly dried 
up if exposed to the direct rays of the sun. Its movements on land are slow and 
sluggish, its gait being a crawl with a marked lateral movement; but in water 
SPOTTED SALAMANDER (nat. size). 
the creature swims strongly, mainly by the aid of its tail. Although frequently 
found in the neighbourhood of its fellows, this salamander can scarcely be termed 
a sociable creature; and it is only during the breeding-season that the two sexes 
live in company. From the slowness of its own movements, it is only slow- 
moving creatures such as snails, worms, and beetles that the salamander can 
capture for its food; although it is stated to occasionally kill small vertebrates. 
Generally a large quantity of food is consumed, after which there is a long fast, 
sometimes lasting for as much as a month. During the pairing-season, which is 
in April or May, both sexes betake themselves to the water, when the females 
collect the spawn deposited by the males. Although the young are usually born 
alive, it occasionally happens that eggs are laid by the female, from which the 
young almost immediately make their escape. The number of tadpoles produced 
at a birth is very large, as many as fifty eggs being frequently found within the 
body of the female; while an instance is on record where upwards of forty-eight 
young were born within four-and-twenty hours. More generally, however, from 
