The water-eft has not, that I can discern, the least appearance of
any gills; for want of which it is continually rising to the surface of
the water to take in fresh air. I opened a big-bellied one indeed, and
found it full of spawn. Not that this circumstance at all invalidates
the assertion that they are larvae: for the larvae of insects are full of
eggs, which they exclude the instant they enter their last state. The
water-eft is continually climbing over the brims of the vessel,
within which we keep it in water, and wandering away: and people
every summer see numbers crawling out of the pools where they
are hatched, up the dry banks. There are varieties of them, differing
colour; and some have fins up their tail and back, and some have
not.
Letter XIX
To Thomas Pennant, Esquire
Selborne, Aug. 17, 1768.
Dear Sir,
I have now, past dispute, made out three distinct species of the
willow-wrens (motacillae trochili) which constantly and invariably
use distinct notes. But, at the same time, I am obliged to confess
that I know nothing of your willow-lark.
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