The Natural History of Se I borne 75 



seems to be very much in the dark. Some authors say that 

 they are viviparous : and yet Ray classes them among his 

 oviparous animals ; and is silent with regard to the manner of 

 their bringing forth. Perhaps they may be rw p-lv WOTOKOI, 

 eco 8e WOTOKOI, as is known to be the case with the viper. 



The copulation of frogs (or at least the appearance of it ; 

 for Swammerdam proves that the male has no penis intrans) 

 is notorious to everybody : because we see them sticking upon 

 each other's backs for a month together in the spring : and 

 yet I never saw or read of toads being observed in the same 

 situation. It is strange that the matter with regard to the 

 venom of toads has not been yet settled. That they are not 

 noxious to some animals is plain : for ducks, buzzards, owls, 

 stone-curlews, and snakes, eat them, to my knowledge, with 

 impunity. And I well remember the time, but was not eye- 

 witness to the fact (though numbers of persons were), when a 

 quack, at this village, ate a toad to make the country-people 

 stare; afterwards he drank oil. 1 



I have been informed also, from undoubted authority, that 

 some ladies (ladies you will say of peculiar taste) took a fancy 

 to a toad, which they nourished summer after summer, for 

 many years, till he grew to a monstrous size, with the maggots 

 which turn to flesh-flies. The reptile used to come forth 

 every evening from a hole under the garden-steps ; and was 

 taken up, after supper, on the table to be fed. But at last a 

 tame raven, kenning him as he put forth his head, gave him 

 such a severe stroke with his horny beak as put out one 

 eye. After this accident the creature languished for some 

 time and died. 



I need not remind a gentleman of your extensive reading 

 of the excellent account there is from Mr. Derham, in 

 Ray's " Wisdom of God in the Creation " (p. 365), concerning 

 the migration of frogs from their breeding ponds. In this 



1 There is no venom in toads, though they have a nasty taste which 

 makes dogs and fish reject them. The almost universal notion that they 

 are poisonous or dangerous is a pure superstition, which originated, no 

 doubt, in their repulsive appearance. ED. 



