188 Queries and Answers* 



the common toad, it has been often overlooked. Living spe- 

 cimens brought from the bogs on the heath were kept alive 

 nearly two months in a cage, in which was always kept a sod 

 of turf. For the first fortnight of their confinement they ate 

 nothing, yet continued plump and active ; afterwards they 

 became more reconciled to their condition, and readily de- 

 voured flies and other insects, if given to them alive : they 

 would never touch their prey till it began to move, and to 

 show signs of preparing to escape. When an insect was 

 thrown down into the cage, the first individual that saw it 

 immediately pricked up its head, turned quickly round, and 

 ran towards it till it got within a certain distance, when it 

 would stop, crouch down upon its belly with its hind legs 

 stretched out, and gaze at it with all the silent eagerness of a 

 staunch pointer, and remain in this position till its prey began 

 to move, when, just as the victim was about to make its escape, 

 it would suddenly dart out its tongue, and lick it up, with 

 a rapidity too quick for the eye to follow. The food they 

 seemed to relish most were the smaller species of dipterous 

 and hymenopterous insects : occasionally they would take wood- 

 lice, and even centipedes. They also ate large quantities of a 

 small red maggot, which is generally abundant in decayed 

 itoleti, and any of the lesser coleopterous insects which might 

 happen to stray into their cage. One of them, in a single 

 instance, attacked an ant ; but it was no sooner conveyed to 

 its mouth, than rejected with great haste and trepidation, pro- 

 bably in consequence of the strong acid which is secreted by 

 these insects : they, however, repeatedly swallowed the smaller 

 bees and ichneumons, without appearing to suffer from their 

 stings. " The natterjack is a much more lively animal than 

 the common toad, and, when in search of food, or following 

 its prey, shows great alertness. When full fed, or from other 

 causes inactive, the above individuals would conceal them- 

 selves in the sod of turf which was always kept in their cage. 

 They also occasionally delighted much in a pan of water, in 

 which they would float motionless for half an hour together, 

 having all their legs stretched out, and no part of the body, 

 except the head, above the surface." 



Turton's statement (Syst. Nat., vol. i. p. 649.) of the habits of 

 the natterjack is : — " It inhabits dry sandy places of Europe : 

 . appears in the evening, especially after showers, and is the spe- 

 cies which has been supposed to have been rained down ; is of 

 a quicker motion than the toad." Mr. Jenyns's meeting with 

 the animal in bogs, and the pleasure his specimens manifested 

 in swimming in a pan of water, seem to render some quali- 



