FROGS AND TOADS 393 



bubble in miniature storm. As you approach they vanish, 

 diving and hiding under the stuff, and mayhap a few dark- 

 coloured males eye 3'ou from the weedy floor. Should you 

 leave this pool and go on, you may come across some couples 

 in the embraces of love, after the manner of toads. But 

 these collect in bunches that grip each other so fiercely 

 that some are at times suffocated and killed, while others 

 have lacerated armpits, and roll off, dazed and swollen, on to 

 the mass of spawn hanging to the reed-stalks, or lying on 

 the bottom of the weeds — a crystalline blanket, studded with 

 black pilules. Should you try and separate the lovers, you 

 can scarce do it, so closely do they cling. Later on they 

 become more alert, and will, like the toads, dive into the 

 water as you walk up to them. 



A friend once came upon a large and excited female in the 

 centre of a very shallow pool in the embraces of an energetic 

 male, both of them croaking, for they croak the louder the 

 higher their passions rise. Around the pair sat a ring of 

 eager males, watching the great ceremony with dilated eyes. 

 Presently one looker-on made a rush at the little male, and 

 tried to pull him off; but he resisted unto torn armpits, and 

 his rival retired to the ropes. Anon another essayed to 

 oust him, and after a violent struggle succeeded in taking 

 his place ; and so the function went on till at last three 

 got together, one on the top of the other, until the middle 

 one was choked to death. I have found six at times killed 

 in this manner. 



These creatures begin their croaking chorus at all hours, 

 according to the weather; but the chorus is loudest in the 

 hottest part of the day, say at three o'clock. And this 

 croaking is kept up for a month after the love-making 

 season is over. 



All through the summer you may come across them, but 

 in autumn they vanish, hiding below the stuff in the dikes 

 and in the mud — the dike-drainers and dike-cutters often 

 turning them out with the old litter in bottom fying, or 



