30 



" The breeding-season in the South of England, the North of 

 France, and Belgium, falls within the last days of March and the- 

 first days of April, and, with the exception of severe frosty weather, 

 which rarely occurs at that season, irrespective of the temperature. 

 Then certain ponds or deep flooded quarries will be found alive with 

 hundreds or thousands of toads which have congregated from the 

 neighbourhood, often from a radius of half a mile or more. Thither 

 all the toads have travelled with remarkable directness, passing 

 other ponds or ditches of which they might avail themselves were it 

 not for the instinct which leads them to select a place offering all 

 guarantees for the successful rearing of their progeny. If a male 

 meets a female en route, he vigorously clasps her under the axils 

 and accomplishes the rest of the journey on her back. Much of the- 

 travelling takes place at night, but individuals are also met with in 

 the daytime, hopping along towards the meeting-place. If a high 

 road should run not far from the pond which is the rendezvous, 

 numbers of crushed corpses of toads, run over by motor-cars or 

 other vehicles, will be found for a distance of perhaps two or three 

 hundred yards, the crushed toads being more and more numerous 

 as the road nears the pond. 



" It pairing toads are taken from the place selected by them for 

 spawning, and removed to a neighbouring garden with a small 

 artificial pond in which, we should think, they might comfortably 

 conclude their breeding-operations, they will often leave and start 

 oft" in the direction whence they were brought. It does not matter 

 to them whether this be up or down hill. 



" Some years ago I made an experiment on the instinct of orienta- 

 tion in this toad. I took a number of pairing individuals out of a 

 pond frequented by the species, which was only a short distance 

 from another in which frogs spawn but to which toads never resort. 

 I turned them loose on a monticule midway between the two ponds, 

 from which neither could be seen, and watched their movements. 

 All, after a little hesitation or after a few hops in the opposite 

 direction, took the right orientation and made their way straight 

 towards the pond whence they had been taken. I experimented on 

 single individuals, on pairs, and groups of individuals, with the 

 same result. In this case, it was evident that the toads were not 

 influenced by hygroscopic sensations, since there was water in both 

 directions. Whether the sounds uttered by their fellows in the 

 pond were a guidance to them, seems to me doubtful, considering 

 the very feeble voice of the Common Toad, the males of which as is 

 well known, are devoid of vocal sacs ; if so, it would denote a very 

 acute sense of hearing in toads. I am, however, convinced, from 

 other observations, that even at a greater distance, from which no 

 such sounds could be heard, the toads would have taken the right 

 direction." 



In addition to the four members of the order Ecamlata witl>- 

 which I have dealt, two more must be mentioned as having 



