IsO 



KXlSTENt'K DK I'OADS. 



as iinivcrsally known and credited as the exi.stence of Toads themselves^ by 

 the unthinking portion of mankind in this country; and even many respectable 

 people, who have not given much attention to Natural History, more than 

 half-believe them. 



The Natural History of the Toad is in itself one of the most interesting 

 siibjects possible, without investing it with any fabulous interest. The following 

 brief flicts, though true, are far more strange than fiction: — Frogs and Toads 

 are peculiarly interesting, from the remarkable changes in their development; 

 the fiiculty of enduring long abstinence, their hybernation, and the age to 

 which they attain. They come from the egg in a condition which is in all 

 essential particulars, that of a fish, and undergo a gradual series of changes 

 by which their form and structure become analogous to those of the true 

 reptiles. In their tadpole or fish state, they are vegetable feeders, having a 

 tail, by which they swim through the water, but no appearance of limbs or 

 members; they breathe by means of gills, which are long fringes hanging 

 loosely in the water on either side of the head: these, which are merely 

 temporary, disappear at a later period, and respiration is carried on by another 

 set, situated behind the head, and which are covered in by a fold of skin, 

 the water gaining access to them by passing through the mouth, as in fishes. 

 In a short time, the hind legs begin to sprout forth at the base of the 

 tail; at a later period the fore legs begin to be developed, and the tail 

 gradually disappears. During this time the lungs are being developed, and 

 the gills are falling into general disuse; and the animals become fitted to 

 live on land and breathe air; not now vegetarians, but feeding on insects, 

 annelides, and small mollusks; water alone being no longer able to afford 

 sufficient air for their respiration. 



The wonderful tales of the discovery of Toads in the hearts of trees, in 

 the inside of stones, and in the middle of rocks, have been related to shew 

 partly that they had been in such positions for years unknown, deprived of 

 air and food; and doubtless the situations, from a superficial view, might 

 lead to this bdief; but from a series of experiments made by Dr. Buckland, 

 and recorded by him in the fifth volume of the ^'Zoological Journal," (to 

 make known which to the readers of "The Naturalist," is the principal 

 object of this contribution;) he concluded that Toads cannot live a year 

 excluded totally from atmospheric air, and that having an occasional supply 

 of air they probably cannot survive two years entirely excluded from food. 

 A supply of oxygen is necessary to the performance of the functions of cold- 

 blooded animals, although the demand for it is much less than in warm- 

 blooded ones; the quantity necessary increases with an increase of muscular 

 exertion; and the oxygen which is consumed is replaced by carbonic acid gas, 

 which must be removed as it causes the death of animals which inhale it even 

 in small quantities. Reptiles, and most Invertebrata that inhabit the land, 

 become to all appearance completely inanimate when the temperature is lowered 

 "below a certain point. In this state their circulation and respiration appear to 



