BUFONIDAE 183 



globe as large as its head. As the note is taken up by all the 

 otlier males, a continuous chorus is established, which on warm 

 and still nights can be heard nearly a mile off. Single croaks are 

 uttered at any time of the day. The embrace, the male digging 

 its fists into the armpits of the female, often takes place on 

 land, near the edge of the water, to which they resort in 

 the night for spawning. The egg-strings are slung around water- 

 plants, unless the water is a mere puddle, and are much shorter 

 than those of B. viridis, measuring only 5 to 6 feet, and contain- 

 ing altogether 3000 to 4000 eggs. The larvae, when hatched, 

 are very small, imperfect, and blackish ; the external gills last a 

 very short time. The young tadpoles live on mud, subsisting on 

 diatoms and low Algae ; they are the smallest tadpoles of all 

 the European kinds, scarcely reaching more than one inch in 

 length, and they metamorphose quickly, the baby-toads leaving the 

 water and running about in less than six weeks, when they are 

 only 1 mm., scarcely three-eighths of an inch, in length. By the 

 end of their second summer they are still only three-quarters of an 

 inch long, and they do not reach maturity until the fourth or 

 fifth year, with a size of 1^ to 2 inches ; still smaller young- 

 males become mature several years before they are full grown. 



Natterjacks stand captivity well and become very tame. 

 When discovered, they first do their best to run away, instead of 

 hiding or squatting down, and when caught they become covered 

 with a slightly foamy lather, the exudation of their glands, which 

 has a peculiar smell, reminding some people of gunpowder, others 

 of india-rubber. They are not very particular as to food, all 

 sorts of insects and . earthworms being taken. Natterjacks are 

 great climbers and diggers. Many of mine have established 

 themselves in the peat with wliicli the walls of the greenhouse 

 are covered, whei-e they have dug out, or enlarged, holes in 

 which they pass the daytime, just peeping out with their bright 

 eyes ; others sit high up, always in dry places, and bask. In 

 the evening they descend, hunting about on the ground, and 

 occasionally they go into the water, whereupon they become 

 quite flaccid and soft. When taken up and held between two 

 fingers, being slightly pressed under the armpits, both sexes 

 utter little jerky notes, as — by the way- — most toads and frogs 

 <lo under similar conditions. 



In Cambridgeshire they frequent certain clay-pits surr()unded 



