Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 14.djvu/557

* NEWT. 483 NEW TESTAMENT CHRONOLOGY. the sides; below, it is orange dotted with black. It inhabits ditches and quiet waters, where it feeds voraciously on all sorts of small acjuatic animals. With the beginning of warm weather the females begin to deposit their eggs, which AMERICAN GREEN NEWT. 1. Adult male of THemyctylus riridescens in the green aquatic dress. 2. Toung newt in the vermilion, terrestrial Btage. 3. Egg-8, attached to a water-weed. 4. An egg, en- larged. 5. Larva, with external gilis. may be laid singly during five or six weeks, and are attached to the leaves of submerged plants. The young liatch in a fortniglit or so, and remain in the water, wearing a dull green coat, until the end of the season, when, having com- pleted their first metamorphosis, their gills dis- appear, the throat and lungs become adapted to breathing air, and they leave the water. Their color now changes to a rich uniform vermilion with fiery button-like spots along the sides. They are then only two or three inches long, and hide under leaves and within rotten logs, feeding upon small worms and the like, but coming out frequently, especially in the night and wet weather. These little creatures are among the prettiest objects in the American woods. This sojourn on land lasts until the autumn of the third or spring of the fourth season, by which time they have nearly attained to full sizp, and have reached se.xiuil maturity. They then grad- ually change in color back to the original green, and return to the water, where their lungs cease to act, pharyngeal respiration is reestablished, and they proceed to breed. This species is lo- cally numerous all over the Eastern United States. A much larger species {Dicmycti/liis torosus) occurs in the Western States. It is dark brown in color, yellowish beneath, and the tail is provided with fins. It feeds mainly on earthworms. EUEOPEAN CRESTED NEWT. Male in breeding dress. Of the Old World species, the most widely distributed is the crested newt {Triton cri.ifa- tus), which is olive-browii with white blotches on the sides, and the males of which, during the breeding season, have serrated crests along the backs. Another well-known species is the marbled newt {Triton inannoratus), with which flic cresteil newt hybridizes. All newts prefer ,1 cool and moist situation, and liibemate isually in the ground. Some species remain all their lives in the water, while others ]]ass most of their lives on land. They cast their skins from time to time, more frequently when young, and the cast skin is eaten. The bre<>ding liabits of all resemble those of our American species. Con- sult: Gadow, Amphibid and liepliles (l.oiiilon, 1001); Gage, "Life History of the Vermilion- S|)otted Newt," in The Amcricun Xaluralist ( I'hiladelphia, 1801); Sherwood, Salamanders Found in the Viciniti/ of Xcw York City (New York, 180.5) ; Jordan, '"Habits and Development of Newts," in Journal of Morphology, vol. viii. (Boston, 1893). NEW TESTAMENT. See Bible. NEW TESTAMENT CHRONOLOGY. The science which deals with the dates and order of events in the life of Clirist and the Apostolic- Age. I. TuE Chronology of the Life op Christ. The main data are to be found in the Gospels and checked by comparison with the contempo- rary events of secular history. ( 1 ) The Date of the Xativity. — From Matthew we learn that the birth of Jesus took place "in the days of Herod the King" ( ii. 1 ). The visit of the wise men, the flight of the Holy Family into Egypt, and the massacre of the children under two years of age all preceded Herod's death (ii. 3-18)_. Tlius Herod's death gives us a date later than which the birth of .Jesus cannot be placed. According to data in Josephus, it is beyond all doubt that Herod died not long before the Passover of B.C. 4. The star of the wise men may have been the conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn, which occurred in B.C. 7. The Nativity was, however, after the first appearance of the star. Since several events took place between the Nativity and Herod's death, the evidence in Matthew is conclusive only for a date between B.C. 7 and B.C. 4. In Luke ii. 1 the data are more definite. "In those days there went forth a decree from Cicsar Augustus that the [Roman] world should be enrolled. This was the first enrollment made when Quirinius was Governor of Syria." The meaning seems to be that this enrollment was the first one of the kind in those regions, and that it was taken while Quirinius was Governor. This definite statement has been the subject of much discussion. The main points in dispute are: whether Augustus ordered an enrollment in Palestine before the famous one of A.D. G (which was, curiously enougli, while Quirinius was Governor of Syria), and, if so, whether Quirinius was the Roman official in- trusted with it-s execution. As to the first ques- tion, documents recently discovered in Egypt supplement our former imperfect knowledge of Augustus's various censuses, so that we are now reasonably sure that about B.C. 9-8 a census was ordered to be taken in Palestine as a part of the second general census of the Empire, in which Palestine was now, for the first time, included. From B.C. 23, for a number of years, a census was taken every fourteen years. It is likely that the census ordered for the year B.C. 9-8 did not actually take place in Palestine, owing to its peculiar circumstances, until B.r. 7. As to the second question, there is a possibility