BRITISH AMPHIBIANS 
Frog, and is often found in dry situations. It delights 
to hide under a rock, stone, or outhouse, and a quarry 
is a very favourite retreat. It makes its way to its spawn- 
ing ground later than Rana temporia, and the Cuckoo and 
Nightingale have usually arrived from overseas ere 
Bufo vulgaris repairs to its favourite breeding haunt. 
The eggs, as has already been mentioned in the intro- 
ductory notes, are laid in strings, not in closely packed 
masses as with the Frog, and there is a double row of 
the dark eggs enclosed within the jelly-like substance. 
The metamorphosis resembles that of the Frog, and need 
not be repeated. ‘The same remark applies to the food. 
Toads, unlike Frogs, do not possess any teeth. They 
have stumpier and heavier limbs, placed further forward 
than in the more active amphibians last described. As 
a matter of fact, Bufo vulgaris has cumbersome powers of 
locomotion, and often loses its equilibrium when nego- 
tiating rough ground. Being less adapted for quick 
movement, cover is taken whenever necessity demands, 
but the Toad does not appear to ‘have many natural 
enemies, and is fairly immune from attack. 
Although the Toad is dirty looking, it is not, in reality, 
an unclean creature as it changes its attire every few 
weeks, and even has a use for this, as it swallows it out 
of the way. ‘The colour does not vary to any appreciable 
extent, some shade of brown predominating above, 
with whitish beneath. The presence of warts on the 
skin at once distinguishes it from a Frog, but in spite of 
this, confusion is still rife. It attains a length of about 
44 
