HERPETOLOGICAL NOTES
191
spawn found, in the past few years, it seems that the population
has increased over-all in the area. This may in part be due to
the efforts of Club members, who have been distributing spawn
in inaccessible places elsewhere. It may equally be due to
natural fluctuations in abundance of the frog, which are as yet
little understood.
Year 1962 1963 1964 1965 1966 1967 1968
Date spawn April March March March March March March
collected 1 23 23 21 5 8 16
Number of
clumps 9 5 10 10 85 120 40
G. Malenoir.
2. The Newts in an Artificial Pond at Loughton
In March, 1966, I was informed that large numbers of newts
had been found in an artificial pond in the grounds of a
demolished house in Loughton.
The pond was a circular, concreted basin about 25 ft. (7.6 m.)
in diameter and, when full, about 3 ft. (.9 m) deep at the centre.
A drainage channel of about 30 ft. (9 m.) in length, 18 in. (45 cm.)
deep and 12 in. (30 cm.) wide entered it at one end, and con-
veyed surface water from the garden at a higher level. The pond
was sited at the lowest part of the garden, with Forest land
adjacent to the boundary. Above the pond the garden consisted
of ornamental shrubs, crazy paving paths and steps, and an
extensive lawn. When the pond was first visited it had suffered
with the demolition of the house, and was full of rubbish, bricks,
timber, old paint and oil drums, and bicycle frames; plant life
was non-existent. There was a little mud and humus in the
pond.
At our first visit to the pond we were very surprised to catch
all three species of British newt. During the next four months
the pond was visited on a number of occasions and all the newts
caught were removed (for it was obvious that the pond would
soon be destroyed by building operations). The total removed in
this period was 654. The details of the species, the sex ratio
within each species, and the date caught, will be found in Table
2. The actual population of newts in the pond is unfortunately
unknown for, apart from the Field Club group, the pond was
visited by numerous local children, who undoubtedly also
removed large numbers.
The presence of the Great Warty Newt (Triturus cristatus)
in such abundance was a striking discovery, for none have been
taken in the Forest ponds nearest to this site (Baldwin's Hill
pond and the Golding's Hill ponds), which are a little over half
a mile away. This species is sparsely distributed in the ponds
in Epping Forest in general, and was recorded from only two
localities in an extensive survey of the Forest in 1958-59. The
relative infrequency of occurrence of the Palmate Newt here was