PIPA, OR SURINAM TOAD. 217 



Common Toad. Few animals which are inhabitants 

 of our country excite so great a degree of disgust and 

 aversion as the Toad. Its general squalid form and 

 appearance, its body dark-coloured and covered with 

 pimples, its crawling pace,, and gloomy and filthy re- 

 treat, are all calculated to excite antipathy and horror. 

 The consequence is, that it is unrelentingly persecuted, 

 and, wherever it appears, is destroyed. Yet it is not 

 to this moment decidedly ascertained whether it has any 

 venomous properties or not. These animals live much 

 in the water during the spring of the year, and there 

 produce their spawn, nearly in the same manner as frogs. 

 The globules of this spawn are contained in a transparent 

 gluten, and the whole is in the form of a long necklace- 

 like chain or string. The tadpoles when hatched, go 

 through the same changes as those of the frog. Toads 

 chiefly crawl out of their hiding-places towards the close 

 of day, for the purpose of obtaining food. This consists 

 of snails, worms, and insects. The notion that there is 

 a natural antipathy betwixt the spider and the Toad, is 

 altogether fabulous, at least as far as relates to the Euro- 

 pean species. During the winter season, these animals 

 conceal themselves in the ground, where they continue 

 in a torpid and inanimate state, until the return of spring. 



Pipa, or Surinam Toad. This disgusting creature 

 is mentioned only for the purpose of stating the singular 

 mode in which its young ones are produced. On the 

 back of the female there are many small cavities, or 

 cells. At a certain period of incubation the male 

 amasses the eggs together, and deposits them on the 

 back of the female, pressing one of them into each of 

 the cells, the upper part of which, for a while, closes. 



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