File:Popular history of the aquarium of marine and fresh-water animals and plants (1857) (14789564173).jpg

Identifier: popularhistoryof00sowe (find matches)
Title: Popular history of the aquarium of marine and fresh-water animals and plants
Year: 1857 (1850s)
Authors: Sowerby, George Brettingham, 1788-1854
Subjects: Aquariums Marine biology Freshwater biology
Publisher: London : Lovell Reeve
Contributing Library: MBLWHOI Library
Digitizing Sponsor: MBLWHOI Library

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head. The front pair of these gills constitutesholders by which the animal afterwards clings to objects,and immediately behind the gills are little knobs which areafterwards developed into anterior legs. Two bands ofbrown spots are seen running down the back. It thenleaves the egg and swims about as merrily as most tad-poles do, and while the anterior gills become more distinctand useful as holders, the hinder ones become beautifullybranched. By degrees the fore legs are developed, and thehinder ones appear at first in a very rudimentary form. Afin-like keel extends along both edges of the tail and overthe back, and the transparency of the whole body is suchthat the circulation can be seen in almost every part. Afterthe complete formation of gills, they begin to be graduallyabsorbed, while the formation of true lungs is going on,until at length, towards the end of autumn, it is an air-breathing reptile, and no longer a fish. It is stated that the young Xewt, retiring from the water g
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FRESH-WATER ANIMALS. 301 after his first season and the loss by absorption of his tailand dorsal fins, seeks some distant spot for his first hiberna-tion, in a damp cellar, or under half-buried stones, and for thefirst three years does not return to the neighbourhood of theponds, not being yet sufficiently strong to resist the attacksto which he would be exposed, and as yet unprepared forbreeding. At the end of the period mentioned howeverhe goes back to the water and is provided with new fins forhis tail and a new crest for his back, becomes fish-like in hishabits, and seeks a mate. At the end of the season again,the fishy ornaments are once more absorbed, and the Newtreturns again to land; this time, however, not seeking dis-tant solitudes, but hibernating in crevices and clay-bankscoiled up in company with others of his race, of whom heis no longer afraid. Here they remain until the nextbreeding season; the males acquiring crest and fins at thebeginning of every aquatic season, and

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