ARMITAGE ON THE HABITS OF THE TOAD. 107 



before the toad, when it has immediately set, and captured it in the usual 

 way. 



From repeated personal observations I can now positively speak to 

 the toad changing its skin once a month, during the summer. The process 

 is very remarkable. It first selects an elevated situation, after remaining 

 a short time a crack is observed in the forehead, and by means of repeated 

 muscular action the crack gradually extends down its side ; it then takes 

 the right forefoot and strips off the skin on the left foot, and vice versa ; 

 next it draws out its hind feet, and all being now clear, it begins the very 

 startling process of taking hold of the skin with its mouth, first to the right, 

 and then to the left, and swallows the whole ! The whole of this process is 

 accomplished in from fifteen to twenty minutes time. The general 

 appearance of the toad is completely changed — it being now of a light 

 colour, with a glutinous matter covering the whole. 



The toad remains in a torpid state about six months in the year. 

 Circumstances may have much to do with its selection of place — but in my 

 case, it crept backwards way into the soil to the depth of about twelve 

 inches ; repeatedly have I looked at it in this state, and have always 

 found it breathing quite naturally, with its eyes wide open. Sometimes I 

 have disturbed it for the purpose of seeing if it would take food, but it 

 would do no such thing — living insects are, at this time, no attraction 

 for it, and it is nearly void of all motion. 



Having on one occasion to fill up the pit where the toad was, with 

 soil, and not requiring the following year to remove it, the poor toad had 

 to remain buried for a period of eighteen months — yet when exhumed 

 it did not seem to have suffered in the least. 



This brings me to the much disputed question of toads having been 

 found alive in stone and coal, at great depths from the surface of the 

 earth. I have no hesitation in giving my unqualified opinion, that 

 it may be so. For as a periodically torpid state is one of its 

 characteristics ; and as it is quite possible that when in this state it may 

 have become gradually buried ; its tenacity of existence, together with its 

 naturally torpid character, is, to my mind, sufficiently convincing to make 

 such an event probable. 



With regard to the toad being poisonous, I quite repudiate the idea : 

 hundreds of times and under all circumstances I have freely handled it 

 and have ever found it harmless. 



The all-wise arrangement of creation is most beautifully illustrated in 



