Page:VCH Suffolk 1.djvu/214

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A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK sunshine quite close to the beach.' Further south Mr. H. Miller has noticed this species in a garden at Alderton. At Bawdsey, an adjoining village at the mouth of the river Deben, a colony of natterjacks has long been known to exist. Through the kind- ness of Mr. W. H. Tuck I am enabled to record an inland locality for this interesting little batrachian. At Tostock, a village situated about midway between Stowmarket and Bury St. Edmunds, there is a pond which forms one of the sources of the little river Thet. This particular pond, one among several in that neighbourhood, has long been frequented in the breeding season by natter- jacks. Mr. Tuck states that they leave the water in July. These animals used to spawn annually at Coldfair Green, about 3 miles north-west of Aldeburgh. A small stream here crosses the green, connected after heavy rains with several shallow depressions in the ground, which then become pools of water ; remaining in that state sometimes for many months. Here, within a stone's throw of several cottages, the natterjacks used to de- posit their spawn, and at the end of April and beginning of May their loud ringing cry could be heard for a considerable distance. From some unknown cause they have now deserted this spot. On 17 June 1903 the

  • Zoobpst, 1882, p. 465.

Rev. J. G. Tuck saw a half grown natter- jack on Wortham Common near Diss. CAUDATA 4. Great Crested Newt. Molge cristatOy Laur. Inhabits ponds in various parts of the county, particularly those upon a clay soil. It is less numerous than the common smooth newt, but the two are not unfrequently found together, the warty newt sometimes making a meal of its smaller relative. 5. Common Newt. Molge vulgarity Linn. (Triton punctatus, Latr.) Plentiful in many ponds and pools of stagnant water, particularly those in which the shining pondweed (Potamogeton lucens) grows, upon the under side of the leaves of which the female often deposits her eggs. The common newt is sometimes found hibernating in cellars, but more frequently under stones, logs, etc. The young after their transition from the tadpole state, instead of increasing, appear for a time to diminish con- siderably in bulk. It is not unusual to find hibernating on land, newts which have at- tained the perfect or adult stage, so extremely small as to be less than half the size of ex- amples in the larval condition, living in the water and still retaining their branchiae. ADDENDUM European Water Tortoise. Emys lutaria. Some of the water tortoises turned out at Blaxhall and Little Glemham during the years 1894 and 1895 still survive in both parishes. Three large specimens have been seen together during the spring of 1908, in a ditch at the latter place. T76