THE TOAD. 127 



smaller specimens of its own kind. It is a fierce 

 little creature, and holds and devours its prey with 

 eager greediness. As spring approaches the crest in 

 the male grows, and becomes deeply notched or 

 jagged, looking as if cut out in the form of a frill. 

 The female deposits her egg singly on a leaf, and with 

 her hind legs draws the edges of the leaf together, 

 which having become coated with the sticky slime 

 which exudes from her body, are glued together, en- 

 closing the egg, and protecting it securely. Mr. Bell 

 says that he has caught with a minnow net many of 

 these reptiles in the ditches in the neighbourhood of 

 London. In May or June the female deposits her 

 eggs, and the young or tadpoles, with fringed gills, 

 swim about. Towards autumn the gills disappear, 

 and they acquire their perfect condition. During 

 winter they hybernate in the soft mud under the 

 water. They are capable of sustaining life during a 

 great amount of cold, remaining torpid in frozen 

 water, and are even said to exist when enclosed in 

 blocks of ice itself, and to return to activity when the 

 melting ice sets them at liberty. A remarkable pecu- 

 liarity prevails in tritons ; it is, that they have the 

 power of renewing their limbs, and even the tail, if it 

 should be broken or cut off. This is said to be re- 

 peatedly performed by the same individual, and is a 

 physiological peculiarity which only occurs in the 

 lower orders of animal life, and is, of course, quite 

 unknown and impossible in any of the higher classes; 

 it is analogous to the power which crustaceans, such 

 as the lobster, have of reproducing their claws and 

 shells, the power of repairing damages which acci- 



