BUFO AMERICANUS. 19 
familiar to all, consisting of a prolonged trill, continued by different individuals, 
both day and night, and not unpleasant when at a sufficient distance. 
The toad is looked upon with aversion by the greater part of mankind; its 
swollen body, its warty and tuberculous skin, with the large parotid glands, give 
it such a repulsive appearance, that it seems hard to believe an innocuous 
disposition can belong to a shape and colour so offensive to the eye; hence the 
vulgar have always considered it venomous: it is nevertheless perfectly harmless, 
destroying only the insects that nature has apportioned for its food. ‘To an 
unhandsome exterior, however, it often owes its safety, being very abundant and 
entirely helpless. 
It has been commonly supposed that the humour exuding from the skin and 
glands is poisonous, yet no experiments have proved it so, and certainly no injury 
has ever arisen from handling or examining the animal. Experiments have been 
made in Europe with the secretions of the common toad of that continent, and 
apparently with different results; for naturalists are still at variance—Laurenti* 
considered the exudation innocuous, while Okent believes it poisonous, and his 
opinion is supported by some interesting experiments of Davy,{ which prove that 
“the skin of the European toad is possessed of minute follicles, secreting a thick 
yellow fluid, of a poisonous nature.” 
GeneraL Remarks. Leconte was the first to separate this toad from the 
southern animal, with which it had been previously confounded. 
Schlegel considers the Bufo Americanus as identical with the common toad of 
Europe, from which however it differs specifically. 
1. The head is smaller in proportion. 
* Laurenti, Synop. Rep. p. 195. + Oken, Zool., B. IL, § 198. 
{ Dr. Davy, Phil. Trans. for 1826, Part II., p. 127. 
