HABITS. 



59 



being provided with such a mechanism, simply seize 

 it with their jaws, as does a newt ; the hands often 

 assist in pushing it into the mouth. A certain 

 quantity of sand or fine gravel is usually found in 

 the stomach and the large intestine, together with 

 beetle elytra and other indigestible matter. As in 

 many birds, the faeces are enveloped in a muci- 

 laginous coating formed in the large intestine. 



Although sensitive to cold and retiring at the 

 approach of winter, Batrachians do not fall into 

 complete lethargy. Hibernating specimens found in 

 holes, under heaps of manure or dead leaves, or even 

 buried in the mud under the w 7 ater, are only sluggish, 

 not dormant. 



Salt is fatal to most Batrachians and to their eggs. 

 A frog soon perishes when thrown into sea water. 

 Yet Bufo calamita is in this respect exceptional, 

 often breeding in brackish pools or burrowing in sand 

 strongly impregnated with salt. The same toad is 

 also remarkable in being less partial to moisture than 

 any other of our Batrachians. 



Among the species that remain concealed during 

 the daytime or in inauspicious weather, Bufo vulgaris 

 and Pelobates lead a solitary existence ; whilst Bufo 

 viridis and calamita and Alytes are of gregarious 

 habits, two individuals or more being usually found 

 in the same hole or under the same shelter. 



Brief allusion should be made here to three popular 

 beliefs, which, although often refuted, still crop up 

 now and then, and, curiously, occasionally find cham- 

 pions in educated men. 



The first, that toads squirt poison at their enemies, 

 is explained by the fact that these Batrachians, when 

 frightened and trying to escape, shoot out, to a con- 

 siderable distance, liquid from the vent. But this 

 liquid, tapped from the bladder, is as innocuous as 

 pure water, and has nothing to do with the poisonous 

 secretion of which toads are really possessed, but 

 unable to squirt out spontaneously. 



