BRITISH AMPHIBIANS 
the two sexes, and when engaged in mating this dis- 
tinguishing feature is very apparent. A word should be 
uttered on behalf of these defenceless creatures. ‘They 
are quite harmless, indeed are among the most useful 
animals we possess. ‘They are entirely incapable of 
inflicting any hurt, and they certainly do not, as is still 
believed in some country districts, “‘ spit fire.’ This 
leads us on to consider a few superstitions, beliefs, 
and old-time fallacies which are still rife regarding 
them. 
With regard to the statements still made with annoying 
frequency in the papers as to Frogs and Toads being 
found embedded in a solid block of stone where, we are 
gravely informed, they must have been entombed for 
hundreds, if not thousands, of years, this of course is 
sheer nonsense, as experiments that have been made ~ 
prove conclusively that such an event is quite impossible. 
True that fossil remains of amphibians have been dis- 
covered in Britain, including our own two species of 
Frogs, the Toad, and one of the Newts, but these un- 
warranted records of hermetically-sealed living creatures 
being discovered deserves the emphatic denial here 
given. 
Of the making of fables (still received, be it noted, with 
a modicum of truth) there is no end, and our friend the 
Toad is associated with several of these. That it has 
beautiful eyes is undoubted by all those who see beauty 
in such things, but the famous Bedfordshire Tinker 
whose travelling anvil I handled the other day, should 
34 
