310 RANIM!. 



near London, on the 16th February; last year (1897) 

 on the 20th of the same month : as a rule, the 

 spawning time varies with us from the beginning of 

 March to the beginniDg of April, according to the 

 mildness of the season, whilst in Devonshire and 

 Cornwall it may begin as early as the end of January. 

 The individuals then congregate in large numbers in 

 ponds, pools, ditches, or slow-running brooks, the 

 males clinging to the females by clasping them under 

 the arms, the hands joining on the breast, at the same 

 time uttering their dull croak, grooh, grooh, which, un- 

 like the edible frog's, is produced mostly under water. 

 If the weather turns cold after pairing has set in, the 

 embrace may last for many clays ; the genesic fury of 

 the males is such that nothing will induce them to 

 release their hold. But as males in this species are 

 not in greater numbers than the other sex, we 

 seldom witness those fights which are so frequent 

 in the equally ardent Bufo vulgaris. Nevertheless 

 they also often make mistakes, and clasp female 

 toads, or Pelobates, frequently causing the death of 

 the latter by fracture of the pectoral girdle, that 

 Batrachian, as we have described above, being, in 

 legitimate unions, seized round the waist, not under 

 the arms. That, in the same way, common frogs and 

 toads are injurious to slow-moving pond fishes, such 

 as carp, to which they cling by poking the hands into 

 the eyes of the fish, was noticed by Pennant in the 

 last centurv, and has since been verified bv numerous 

 observers. 



The eggs are expelled very suddenly, and the large 

 clumps are afterwards seen floating on the surface, 

 many together, these frogs usually selecting the same 

 part of a pond or ditch for spawning. Two or three 

 weeks elapse, as a rule, before the liberation of the 

 embryo, and the young are usually able to leave the 

 water in May or beginning of June, except in the 

 extreme north and high up in the mountains, where, 

 the spawning season being necessarily much retarded, 



