THE COMMON TOAD. 129 



In Norfolk those fungi, which in other localities 

 are commonly called " toadstools," are called 

 " toads'-caps," according to some orthography, but 

 as we have heard it, " toad-skeps." Any one who 

 may converse with farm labourers, or their children, 

 about any of the Agarics, except the common 

 mushroom and the Horse mushroom, will hear no 

 other name for them than " toad-skeps." The 

 etymology of this cognomen is to us very obscure, 

 although conversant with the local dialect. The 

 large wicker baskets, holding a bushel, and which 

 are extensively used in East Norfolk, are there 

 called " skeps " ; but what connection there is 

 between a toad and a bushel basket is to us as much 

 a problem as the association of a toad and a side- 

 pocket, another East Anglian allusion equally classi- 

 cal and inexplicable. 



The body of the toad is broad, thick, very much 

 swollen ; the head large, with the crown much flat- 

 tened ; muzzle obtuse and rounded ; gape very wide ; 

 no teeth either on the jaws or the palate; the 

 tongue entire, not notched ; over each eye a slight 

 porous protuberance, a larger one on each side 

 behind the ears ; on the fore feet the third toe is 

 the longest ; the first and second are equal, and 

 longer than the fourth ; the hind legs scarcely 

 longer than the body, with five toes, and the rudi- 

 ment of a sixth, webbed for half their length ; the 



