TATE ON REPTILES. 371 



Natterjack, {B. calamita.) In point of intelligence this is to the toad 

 what the Chimpanzee is to the Orang. Whoever lias seen those two Apes together 

 in the Zoological Gardens will understand nie. The other day I put a Toad 

 and a Natterjack into a new box together. The latter spent the first liour 

 in walking and climbing all about the box to examine its ne^v abode ; the 

 former kept crouched in the corner in which I jdaced it. There is a curious 

 difference between the eyes of the two species : in tlie daytime those of tlio 

 Natterjack are dull and expressionless, the pupils being contracted into mere 

 specks ; wliile in the night they are as beautiful as those of the toad, yet the 

 Natterjack is much the more diurnal in its habits. I consider a fidl sized B. 

 calamita the handsomest of our indigenous reptiles. 



Frog, (Eana tempomria.) I have a frog in my vivarium which gen- 

 erally croaks Avhen handled. Last October it cut a slit in its side by leaping 

 against the sharp edge of a tin canister in which it had been travelling. I 

 did not wish to kill it as it was a very pretty one, and could not push in the 

 protruding entrails, so cut them off, and staunched the woimd with gum 

 water : five days after it Avas Avell enough to eat three flies, and is now in as 

 good condition as any of my reptiles. It catches flies from greater distances 

 than the toads can, as it jumps and tlirows out its tongue at the same time. 

 I once had a frog spawn Avliile in my possession. Two years ago I remember 

 seeing a field mouse trying to catch a frog in a ditch, but my looking on 

 frightened the former away. 



N. American Bull Frog, (Baiia inxmns.) One in the Zoological 

 Gardens has lately got drowned. I have had a young toad die from being 

 unable to get out of the Avater ; but should not have thought it possible in a 

 full groAvn Bull Frog. 



Tree Frog, {Hyla — .?) There is a dirty AvhiteTree Frog, from Queens- 

 land, in the Zoological Gardens. As it sticks on the glass side of its cage it 

 looks like a lump of putty. 



Rattlesnake, {Crotalus horridus.) Tlie noise of the rattle alAA-ays seems 

 to me to sound from the opposite direction to Avhere the creature is. ]May 

 not this be so, that an animal in attempting to fly from its deadly foe often 

 runs into its jaws 1 



Common Viper, (Pelias be?ms.) It has been said that tliis will never 

 strike at an inA-rdnerable object more than once; but those Avliich I havo 

 caught have kept biting for some minutes at the bits of fmze Avith Avhich I hit 

 them. One of these AA^as of the azure-bellied variety, twenty-tAvo inches long; 

 I extracted his fangs and he soon after died. I caught liiin on Wimbledon 



