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An Unusually Massive Clean Newt. Who wrote this letter in 1977?

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    UNUSUALLY LARGE SMOOTH NEWT

    Expensive Sir,

    On the 18th October, 1977, I acquired a Widespread or Clean newt of remarkable dimension, it measures 101 millimetres from head to tail, and was present in a suburban space of Southampton.

    Prior to now I’ve had many newts of such species, however by no means one so massive.

    Malcolm Smith provides in his “New Naturalists” ebook the utmost size for a 4 12 months outdated feminine easy newt as being 97 millimetres.

    The newt I’ve got here from a small fish pond in a again backyard, the place there have been many such newts, however of smaller dimension.

    The grid reference is Map SU41/51 lat. 142 Lengthy. 444. I might be very grateful when you would inform me if this specimen is the longest reported.

    Yours faithfully,

    C.G. Packham

    The letter appeared within the Publication of the British Herpetological Society, December 1977.

    C.G. Packham is after all the BBC wildlife presenter, Christopher Gary Packham, then aged 16.

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