224 



BTJFONID^E. 



cold, pairing may last a fortnight or more; otherwise 

 the breeding operations are concluded within a week, 

 only males that have failed in finding a mate remain- 

 ing a little longer in the water, swimming about in 

 great anxiety and clasping frogs or toads of other 

 species, even occasionally fishes, or any object, such 

 as a pole or fishing-net, that may be held out to them. 



Fig. 82. 



Male and female pairing. 



The eggs come out slowly, in several hours, in two 

 distinct strings from the oviducts, and they are 

 impregnated in several emissions. The male assists 

 with his toes in pulling out the strings ; and the female, 

 by winding round during oviposition, twists them 

 about water plants or submerged branches of trees, 

 usually not far from the borders. The young leave 

 the water eight to twelve weeks later, measuring 8 to 

 12 mm. from snout to vent. In a very interesting 

 paper on " The Reptiles and Batrachians of tlie Edin- 

 burgh District," W. Evans records finding a pair of 

 common toads in a deep pool in an old limestone 

 quarry in East Lothian (practically at sea level) in 

 the very act of spawning so far on in the season as 

 the loth of June, 1894. This is the more remark- 

 able from the fact that the common toad and the 



