394 NATURAL SCIENCE. June, 1896. 



The little creatures do not lose their tail till they come on land. 

 In great numbers they leave the water from May till September, 

 and hide themselves under neighbouring stones, where they sit 

 huddled together till dusk, when they begin the march to the fields 

 in which they desire to spend their lives. To attain sexual maturity 

 they need three years. Though I have handled more than 1,000 

 Alytes, I could discover no outward sexual differences. 



The toads sit the whole day in hollows which they have dug out, 

 and which look like mouse-holes slightly flattened, or under stones in 

 old quarries. The drier and hotter the weather, the deeper they bury 

 themselves. They seem to need damp earth, though they only use 

 the water to throw off their eggs. They do not jump very often, but 

 sit in front of their holes, and lie in wait for a slug, a fly, a worm, or 

 similar insect, so that in case of danger they can retire into their 

 holes. If they spring unsuccessfully after an insect they turn their 

 backs on it, just as though they would not show their anger to a mere 

 food-creature. If they swallow it only half, or if it is too large for a 

 single bite, they aid themselves with the right or left leg, blink their 

 eyes, lick their jaws again, and resume their look-out. Three years 

 ago I had so tamed a toad that it ate a wriggling worm which I held 

 out in my hand. It is interesting to watch how the toes of the fore- 

 feet tremble when the toad discovers an insect, how it slowly advances 

 in order to make a sure spring, and what exertions it makes with the 

 whole body to get a stalk or a stone out of its mouth again, which, in 

 the eagerness of the skirmish, it has also snapped up. Young animals, 

 which have chosen too large a worm as food, are overthrown by its 

 twisting and wriggling, and have to let it go again. 



One often finds egg-cords lying about loose. Presumably the 

 male, in squeezing into too small a hole, has rubbed them off, or even 

 lost them in a fight. In the holes I have found twelve toads lying 

 next to, over and under, each other. If exposed suddenly, so that 

 daylight strikes them, they appear to want to creep into themselves 

 without hopping away. In the day, however, one can only catch 

 them by digging them out with a spade. In the evening one must 

 slowly creep to the place whence the song issues, taking a dark 

 lantern. Its colour shields the toad well from danger, for a damp 

 stone covered with very fine moss has just the same appearance. 

 The eyes, with perpendicularly-cut black pupil and golden iris, stand 

 out of the head. The forefeet, on which are four toes, bend quite 

 inward, so that they can be used for the excavation of holes. 



Minister, Westphalia. Carl Hartmann. 



