BRITISH AMPHIBIANS 



the two sexes, and when engaged in mating this dis- 

 tinguishing feature is very apparent. A word should be 

 uttered on behalf of these defenceless creatures. They 

 are quite harmless, indeed are among the most useful 

 animals we possess. They are entirely incapable of 

 inflicting any hurt, and they certainly do not, as is still 

 believed in some country districts, " spit fire." This 

 leads us on to consider a few superstitions, beliefs, 

 and old-time fallacies which are still rife regarding 

 them. 



With regard to the statements still made with annoying 

 frequency in the papers as to Frogs and Toads being 

 found embedded in a solid block of stone where, we are 

 gravely informed, they must have been entombed for 

 hundreds, if not thousands, of years, this of course is 

 sheer nonsense, as experiments that have been made 

 prove conclusively that such an event is quite impossible. 

 True that fossil remains of amphibians have been dis- 

 covered in Britain, including our own two species of 

 Frogs, the Toad, and one of the Newts, but these un- 

 warranted records of hermetically-sealed living creatures 

 being discovered deserves the emphatic denial here 

 given. 



Of the making of fables (still received, be it noted, with 



a modicum of truth) there is no end, and our friend the 



Toad is associated with several of these. That it has 



beautiful eyes is undoubted by all those who see beauty 



in such things, but the famous Bedfordshire Tinker 



whose travelling anvil I handled the other day, should 

 34 



