THE COMMON NEWT. (Triton aquaticus.)
Besides the frogs and toads, which have no tails when arrived at their perfect form, there are several Batrachian Reptiles in which this appendage is permanent. The best known of these are the Newts, of which two kinds are very common in ponds during the spring. The common Newt is three or four inches in length, and is of a pale brown colour above, and orange with black spots below. It has four little webbed feet and a flattened tail. In swimming, the legs are turned backwards to lessen resistance, and the animal is propelled principally by the tail. Their progression at the bottom of the water and on land is performed creepingly with their small and weak feet. These animals live during the autumn and winter under stones and clods of earth, and come down to the water in February or March for the purpose of depositing their eggs there. The eggs are carefully inclosed by the parents in the leaves of aquatic plants. The young, when first hatched, are in the form of tadpoles; the legs afterwards sprout from the sides of the body, but the tail is not cast off, as in the frogs. The old Newts remain in the water until July or August.
THE GREAT NEWT. (Triton palustris.)
This, the largest British species of the Newt, is by no means uncommon in our ponds and ditches. It is about six inches in length; its back is dark, and its under side is orange-coloured, sprinkled with small black spots; altogether it is darker and richer in colour than the common species. During the breeding season the males of both species, but especially those of the larger one, are adorned with membranous crests, and their colours become much more vivid. Their tenacity of life is very great; when mutilated, they will reproduce the lost parts, and they may be frozen into a solid lump of ice without losing their vitality. With regard to its habits, this animal is a most voracious creature, and devours unsparingly aquatic insects, and, in fact, any small animal which happens to come in its way. For tadpoles it seems to have a special predilection, and its greediness is such that it has not escaped the charge of cannibalism. These Newts have more than once been taken in the act of devouring individuals of the smaller species, but of such a size that there seems to have been considerable difficulty in swallowing them.
§ III. Saurian Reptiles.
