In summer, the rare smooth newt, Ireland's only tailed amphibian, breeds in The Marsh.

Tom Hunt, Carracastle, Co Mayo This was a smooth newt that met its fate on the way to a pond to mate.

Four species of newts have been described as occurring in this country-thetwo common kinds are the smooth newt and the warty newt.

There were Smooth Newts, mottled like the fighter planes in the comics he read, and the longed-for Great Crested Newt, with its huge golden eye.