old trees, in subterraneous recesses, or the cavities of old walls, where several of them have been sometimes discovered, collected, and twisted together. They are frequently to be seen in the water, where they are able to live as well as on land. Their principal food consists of insects, snails, and worms. Their pace is slow, and their manners sluggish.

When the Salamander is at rest, it very often rolls itself into a spiral form, like a serpent. Whenever it is handled, it covers itself suddenly over with this milky fluid; and when crushed, or even when squeezed, it emits a very peculiar and offensive odour. When struck, it erects its tail, and becomes, for some time, altogether motionless.

It is extremely tenacious of life, and is not to be killed by blows or wounds without much difficulty; but if wetted with vinegar, or sprinkled with powdered salt, it soon dies in convulsions. This is the case likewise with some other Lizards, and with most worms. It is able to continue under water for a considerable length of time. Some individuals have been kept in water for more than six months, without any other food than what they could collect from that element. The animals often raise their nostrils above the surface, for the purpose of breathing. Whilst kept in water, they occasionally throw off a thin skin, of a greenish ash colour.

The females are generally supposed to produce their young ones into the world alive, hatched from eggs within their own bodies, in the same manner as vipers. M. de Maupertuis, in one female that he opened, counted forty-two, and in another forty-four. When first batched, they are nearly black, and almost without any yellow spots; they are deposited in the water, and furnished with a kind of fins on each side of the neck, which always drop off as soon as the animals become perfected.

THE WATER-EFT OR NEWT.

THE Salamander, as we have already mentioned, was long fabulously supposed to be capable of living in the midst of fire.-The Eft, on the contrary, has really the property of reanaining alive in the midst of ice. It is sometimes caught by the sudden formation of ice in the ditches or ponds that it inhabits; here it. remains in a torpid state, till, on the return of spring, its prison becomes melted, when it recovers its liberty and its powers of motion. Sometimes, even in summer, Efts have been found enveloped in lumps of ice taken from ice-houses, in which they must have remained without either food or motion, from the commencement of the frost.

The Common Water Newt seldom exceeds four inches in length, and is entirely covered, except on the belly, with small warts. Its food consists of worms and water insects, and the prey is often contended for with great obstinacy. Dr. Townson kept some of them in a jar, and fed them with worms; the greatest possible quietness prevailed frequently amongst the little creatures, before the food was given them; but the moment the worm was dropped into the water, all was hustle and confusion, each attacking its neighbour furiously, and seizing it by the head, foot, or tail. These battles were the more singular, as the object of their strife, lav for some time unnoticed, at the bottom of the jar.

Almost all the animals of the Lizard tribe, change their skins once or twice a year, but the Efts do this much more frequently, and the manner in which the operation is performed, is so curious, as to deserve a particular description. Mr. Baker 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. It hegan the operation of casting the skin, by loosening that part about the jaws. It then pushed it backward gradually, 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 ne cessity 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 its mouth, and setting its feet upon it, for firmer hold, by degrees drew it entirely off, the hind-legs being dragged out in the same manner that the foreones were 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 sometimes occupies nearly half an hour; and, after it is finished, the Lizard appears full of life and vigour. If the skin is not taken away very shortly after it is cast, the ani mal 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 curious to see the pains it costs to reduce it to a condition to pass down the throat.

The water newt deposits her eggs at the bottom of the water, they are enclosed in a gluey substance which connects them together like beads pon a string. Through this gluey substance the

young ofts may be distinctly perceived, coiled up within a transparent membrane, which lies in the middle. When the young have increased in size, and worked a passage out of their confinement, their shoulders are furnished with fringed tufts, like feathers, which serve the purpose of fins, but gradually disappear as the animals grow longer.