Page:Natural History, Reptiles.djvu/277

Rh be absorbed, and his brilliant lines 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.