114 OUR REPTILES. 



Pennant commences his chapter on this animal 

 in the following words : — 



The most deformed and hideous of all animals ; the body 

 broad, the back flat, and covered with a pimply dusky hide : the 

 belly large, swagging and swelling out ; the legs short, and its 

 pace laboured and crawling ; its retreat gloomy and filthy : ia 

 short its general appearance is such as to strike one with disgust 

 and horror ; yet we have been told by those who have resolution 

 to view it with attention, that its eyes are fine. To this it seems 

 that Shakespeare alludes, when he makes his Juliet remark : — 



" Some say the lark and loathed toad change eyes." 



As if they would have been better bestowed on so charming a 

 songster than on this raucous reptile.* 



Pennant, however, only gave expression to the 

 feeling which was common, and almost universal, at 

 the time he wrote. Toads were looked upon with 

 dread and disgust ; and even now many people, not 

 only illiterate, but educated, would describe it in 

 equally prejudiced terms. There is nothing very 

 prepossessing, perhaps, in a casual glance at a toad 

 — nothing to recommend it very strongly to a lady 

 as a drawing-room pet. How often have we heard 

 the exclamation of an anxious mother to her child, 

 " Don't go near that toad ; it will spit at you ! " 

 And how long and earnestly might we plead with 

 such a mother before we could convince her that 

 the toad would do her child no harm ! 



Pennant's " British Zoology," vol. iii., p. 14. 



