with large round blackish spots: on the head are two stripes. The crest, which is notched along the edge, is often tipped in spring with bright red or violet. The female is light yellowish brown, with scattered brown dots, which are frequently wanting on the belly.

Early in the spring the crest of the male assumes a size and hue which make him a conspicuous object; and he may be seen pursuing the other sex through the water, frequently doubling his fin-like tail forwards in a sort of bight or loop, and vibrating it with a rapid tremulous motion. Soon after this the female begins to deposit her eggs, which she does on the leaves of water-plants, sometimes selecting

the angle at the base of the footstalk, and at others, placing them within a folded leaf. In the latter case, the manner in which she proceeds is interesting and curious. We quote Professor Bell's words of another species, which are, however, sufficiently descriptive of this: The female, selecting some leaf of an aquatic plant, sits, as it were, upon its edge; and folding it by means of her two hinder feet, deposits a single egg in the duplicature of the folded part of the leaf, which is thereby glued most securely together, and the egg is thus effectually protected from injury. ""* The process goes on through the spring and early part of the summer, continuing much longer than that of the Anourous Amphibia.

In its growth and development, the Tadpole of the Newt does not materially differ from that of the Frog. Like that, it presents a beautiful object for microscopic examination, the leaf-like gills exhibiting the branchial circulation of the blood, the red globules of which are seen "accelerated by momentary jerks through the vessels;" while the beautiful transparency of the oar-like tail offers no impediment to the view of the vital fluid in the general or systemic circulation.

About the beginning of July many of the young Newts, having completed their metamorphosis, leave the water, and remain on land. And not long afterwards, the adults follow their example, and creep about the herbage of the banks, or resort to damp hollows, cellars in the neighbourhood of rivers, and similar humid retreats. The fine crest of the male begins to "British Reptiles," 122.

be absorbed, and his brilliant hues disappear; but these begin to be both renewed about the close of the year.

The Newts cast their skins at short but irregular intervals. From seven individuals, kept by Mr. Baker for several months in a jar of water, for the purposes of observation, it appears that they generally perform this operation at the end of every fortnight or three weeks. He informs us, that for a day or two before the change, the animal always appeared more inactive than usual, taking no notice of the worms that were given to it, which, at other times, it greedily devoured. The skin in some parts of the body appeared loose, and in colour not so lively as before. The animal began the operation of casting its skin, by loosening that part about the jaws. It then pushed it backward gently and gradually, both above and below the head, till it was able to slip out first one leg and then the other. With these legs it proceeded to thrust the skin as far backward as they could reach. This done, it was under the necessity of rubbing its body against the gravel at the bottom of the water, till it was more than half freed from the skin, which appeared doubled back, covering the hinder part of the body and the tail. The animal now bent back its head, taking the skin in his mouth; and then set its feet upon it, and, by degrees, drew it entirely off; the hind legs being dragged out in the same manner that the others had been before. On examining the skin, it was, in every instance, found to be turned inside out, but without any breach except at the jaws.

These creatures do not, however, like some of the snakes, put off the coverings of the eyes along with the skin; for two round holes always appear where the eyes have been. This operation occupies nearly half an hour; and after it is finished, the Newt appears in full vigour. If the skin be not taken away very shortly after it is cast, the animal usually swallows it. Sometimes it begins with the head part first; and the tail, being filled with air and water, becomes like a blown bladder, and proves so unmanageable, that it is very diverting to see the pains it costs to discharge these, and to reduce it to a condition to pass down the throat.

M. Dufay informs us, that it frequently happens to a Newt, not to be able to get the old skins removed from one of the feet; and that the portion of the skin which remains, becoming corrupted, often occasions a species of gangrene in the foot. This foot soon afterwards falls off; but instead of killing the animal, it is, in a little while, replaced by another. Newts are still more liable to lose their toes in this manner. The cast skins of Newts are frequently to be seen floating on the surface of stagnant waters.

The Smooth-newt feeds on the larvæ of waterinsects, the grubs of gnats, blood-worms, &c., on flies and gnats that alight on the water, on the spawn of frogs and toads, as well as on slugs. In its turn it becomes the prey of a kindred species, the Great Warty-newt (Triton cristatus).

ORDER III. AMPHIPNEUSTA.

(Doubly-breathing Reptiles.)

In these animals the body is much lengthened, and adapted for swimming; the limbs are small, feeble, and far removed from each other, and in some species the hind pair are wanting. The tail is compressed, and remains through life. The respiration is performed in a two-fold manner, in water by means of gills, which are external, and continue throughout the whole term of existence, and in air, by means of lungs, likewise permanent. The eyes are furnished with eyelids.

The term Amphibia, having reference to the two-fold medium and manner in which is carried on the most important function of life, the renewing of the vitality of the blood, is with literal strictness applicable to these singular forms: for it is descriptive, not of a preparatory and rudimentary condition of existence, but of that which, subsisting through life, is truly proper to the animal. "The simultaneous existence and action of branchial tufts and lungs in these animals," observes Cuvier, can no more be contested than the most certain facts of natural history; I have before me the lungs of a Siren of three feet in length, where the vascular apparatus is as much developed and as complicated as in any reptile nevertheless this Siren had its branchia

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