Newt
2 of the 7 encyclopedias on this shelf carry an entry for Newt. Both are reproduced below, so you can see where they agree and where they differ.
Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)
a tailed animal of the frog family. The newt is related closely to the salamander. There are many species. The life history of the newt is much the same as that of the frog, save that the newt does not lose its tail. The English newt never ceases to frequent the shallow, sluggish waters of ditches and ponds. It is not to exceed three inches long. It lives on worms, larvae, insects; it is a harmless, unattractive creature, for which no particular use has been found, unless, indeed, it devours the wrigglers of mosquitoes. The common American newt deposits usually one egg at a time on a water plant. This, in May or June. In twenty or thirty days, according to temperature, the tadpoles appear. By August the tadpole may have become a tiny, four-legged creature with branching outer gills. Late in autumn the young newt loses its gills, takes to the woods, and secretes itself in some damp spot under a log or beneath leaves. At this stage it has a beautiful red color. Several years are required to attain maturity. The adult is of an olive green color with orange-colored spots along the sides. It is about three and one-half inches long. It takes to the water when the breeding season comes. The English newt of literature is a warty creature, about six inches long, living in ditches and ponds on aquatic insects, tadpoles, and the like. It swims by means of its tail. The female deposits eggs singly on aquatic plants. The witches described in Macbeth, it will be remembered, put into their bubbling cauldron: "Eye of newt and toe of frog, Wool of bat and tongue of dog."
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
a small reptile of the family Salamandridæ, of which there are many varieties, the principal one being termed the great water newt, Triton cristatus. This specimen, when it is full-grown, measures about six inches in length, and in its appearance greatly resembles the salamander. On the back the color is a dark brown; the sides are speckled with spots, and the under-surface of the body is a bright orange, variegated with black patches. The head is rather small, and the eyes are of a bright golden hue; the tail is flattened in form, and has thin edges at the extremities; and the limbs are short, the fore-feet being divided into four, and the hind into five toes. The newt inhabits shady places and stagnant waters, and lives principally on insects, of which it consumes an immense quantaken place in the relative importance tity. Besides the great water newt there of the editorial and the news sections is the common water newt, Triton aquaticus, found in the Atlantic States, which, in its habits and appearance, so closely resembles the former, as not to need distinct description. Other a species, from 4 to 12 inches long, are also found in the United States. NEW TESTAMENT. See BIBLE.