CHAPTER VII.

_NEWTS AND SALAMANDERS._

The Newts and Salamanders, or Tailed Amphibians, are distinguished from the preceding group of the Frogs and Toads by the retention of a tail throughout life. In this manner they very nearly resemble the advanced larval or tadpole phases of the latter. In some instances, in fact, the earlier or externally gill-bearing tadpole phase is persistent. The geographical distribution of the Salamander Tribe is much less extensive than that of the Frogs and Toads, but few are found south of the Equator, and they are entirely unknown in Australia or in Africa south of the Sahara.

Two members of the group are indigenous to the British Islands, where they are familiarly known as NEWTS, ASKERS, EFFETS, or EFTS. The larger and handsomer of the two, the CRESTED NEWT, occurs in ponds and ditches throughout the warmer months of the year. It grows to a length of nearly 6 inches, of which the tail constitutes about one moiety. Its colour is more usually blackish or olive-brown with darker circular spots above, and yellow or orange-red with black spots or marbling beneath, while the sides are speckled white. In the breeding-season the colours are more especially brilliant, and it is at this time that the male develops the serrated crest along the middle of its back, from which it takes its title.

The eggs, or spawn, of the newt are deposited in a different fashion to those of the frog and toad. In place of being aggregated together in an irregular or ribbon-like mass, each is deposited separately and attached to the leaves of water-plants. By the dexterous use of its feet, the female newt twists or folds the leaf, or a portion of it, around the egg, its viscid envelope allowing it to readily adhere, and it is thus effectually concealed or protected from injury. When about a quarter of a inch long, the tadpole escapes from the egg. At this early stage the gills are quite simple and the front limbs represented by mere knobs. Immediately in front of the gills are two fleshy lobes, by means of which the tadpole can temporarily adhere to the surfaces of water-plants. Within a fortnight the little animal has grown to double the size. The gills are now elegantly branched and the fore limbs well developed. The latter are, however, only bifurcated at their extremities, and it is some little time later that four distinct toes are possessed by each fore limb and that the hind limbs make their appearance. The gills, which have at this stage reached their most complex state of development, now begin to diminish in size, and are gradually absorbed, the lungs in the meantime acquiring their full functional proportions. The newt, having now passed from the fish-like to a reptilian stage, is unable to live entirely beneath the water, and is obliged to come up to the surface at intervals to breathe, or is adapted for living entirely upon land. Newts in their fully matured state, except during the breeding-season, pass much of their time on land, and wander to considerable distances from the water. They at all times, however, exhibit a preference for moist situations, such as a shady wood or damp cellar.

Like the toad and blind-worm, the feeble, inoffensive newt has from the earliest time to the present day been the victim of the most unmerited dread and persecution among the uneducated. In some country districts it is not only accredited with the property of biting venomously, but of spitting fire into the bitten wound. A property that is actually possessed by these creatures is that of reproducing lost parts. The Geckos and other lizards, as already recorded, are in the habit of reproducing their mutilated tails. The newt, however, beats that record to the extent of reproducing lost legs, and, it has been affirmed, eyes also.

A second species of British newt, of somewhat smaller size and even more common than the crested one, is the COMMON or SMOOTH NEWT. It scarcely exceeds 3 inches in length, and is distinguished by its smooth skin and relatively less conspicuous crest. In habits it is less addicted to a prolonged aquatic residence than the crested form, and wanders to more considerable distances from water. One of the largest and handsomest representatives of the family is the MARBLED NEWT of Southern France and the Spanish Peninsula, which attains a length of 8 or 9 inches. The upper-parts of the male at the breeding-season are bright bronze-green with irregular black markings; its crest is ornamented with black and white vertical bars, and a silvery white band is developed along the sides of the tail. The crestless female has a distinctive orange streak running down the centre of the back.

The TRUE SALAMANDERS have no British representative, though the common or spotted species is abundant throughout Central and Southern Europe. Its conspicuous livery--in which bold markings of black and brilliant yellow are somewhat equally balanced, no two individuals, however, precisely corresponding--distinguishes it broadly from all other members of the group. The surface of the skin is very smooth and shining, and thickly set on the surface with glands and pores, from which a viscid and undoubtedly poisonous secretion is exuded. In common with that of other salamanders, the tail is cylindrical, instead of compressed and oar-shaped, as in the Newts, and there is no crest down the back. The SPOTTED SALAMANDER frequents moist situations in mountain and forest districts. It is essentially nocturnal in its habits, lying up during the day in some suitable rock or mossy crevice, exposure of its sensitive skin to the direct rays of the sun speedily having a fatal effect. Large numbers of this salamander are sold as suitable and curious additions to the fernery and vivarium, and will survive for long periods, appropriate food and the necessary conditions of moisture being provided. Snails, worms, and beetles and other insects constituting its natural food, it fulfils as useful a rôle as the toad in the extermination of insect-pests, and may be as strongly recommended for introduction to the greenhouse.

Salamanders repair to the water to breed, after the manner of newts, but the young are usually brought forth alive, though occasionally eggs are deposited, from which the young tadpoles almost immediately emerge. The number usually produced at a birth ranges from sixteen to thirty, but instances are recorded where there have been as many as fifty.

The colossus of the tailed Amphibian race is the GIANT SALAMANDER of China and Japan, which may attain to a length of from 3 to 3½ feet. The body, like that of the ordinary salamanders, is broad and depressed; but the eyes are very small, and have no eyelids; and the tail, which is relatively short, is compressed, and has a fin both above and beneath. This salamander lives entirely in the water, and is adapted for such an aquatic life by the possession of both lungs and gills. In its native habitat it is most usually found in small, clear mountain-streams, at elevations of from 700 to 5,000 feet above the sea-level, such streams being often not more than a foot in width, and more or less overgrown with grasses; in these the adults are usually found curled round the larger stones, while the smaller ones occupy holes and crevices among them.

A representative of the tribe now commonly kept in aquaria is the Mexican AXOLOTL. It has usually a velvety black skin, and grows to a length of 9 or 10 inches. As generally known it presents a very newt-like aspect, or, more correctly, that advanced tadpole state of the newt in which the external gills are most highly developed. The animals breed freely in the water, eggs being laid, which pass through the earlier tadpole to the adult phase. Up to within comparatively recent times the foregoing metamorphoses were supposed to represent the Alpha and Omega of the animal's existence. Some exceptional examples, however, bred in an aquarium in which rocks projected out of the water, surprised their owners by gradually absorbing their supposed persistent gills, also their fin-like tail-membranes, and, crawling out on the rocks, were transformed into ordinary salamanders.

The OLM, or BLIND PROTEUS, of the subterranean caves of Dalmatia and Carniola is a form with persistent external gills. Nearly allied is the North American form known as the FURROWED SALAMANDER. The latter, however, living under more normal conditions, has well-developed eyes. While possessing the customary number of limbs, the number of toes in the American type is four to each foot. In the European Proteus there are but three toes to the front and two toes to the hinder limb. In a yet lower form, the SIREN SALAMANDER of the South-eastern United States, a yet more primitive persistently gill-bearing condition is presented.

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_BOOK IV. FISHES._

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