CHAPTER EIGHT BIRDS &> REPTILES 



For my own part, I can see nothing more disgusting in 

 animals usually called reptiles, such as lizards and toads, 

 than in any other living creatures. A toad is a most useful 

 member of society, and deserves the freedom of all floricul- 

 tural societies, as vifell as entire immunity from all the pains 

 and penalties which he undergoes at the hands of the ignor- 

 ant and vulgar. In hotbeds and hothouses he is extremely 

 useful, and many gardeners take great care of toads in these 

 places, where they do good service by destroying beetles 

 and other insects. In the flower-beds too they are of similar 

 use. Of quiet and domestic habits, the toad seldom seems 

 to wander far from his seat or form under a loose stone, or 

 at the foot of a fruit-tree or box-edging. There are several 

 habituds of this species in my garden, whom I always see in 

 their respective places during the middle of the day. In the 

 evening they issue out in search of their prey. I found a 

 toad one day caught by the leg in a horse-hair snare which 

 had been placed for birds. The animal, notwithstanding the 

 usual placid and phlegmatic demeanour of its race, seemed 

 to be in a perfect fury, struggling and scratching at every- 

 thingwithin his reach, apparently much more in anger than 

 fear. Like many other individuals of quiet exterior, toads 

 are liable to great fits of passion and anger, as is seen in 

 the pools during April, when five or six will contend for the 

 good graces of their sultanas with a fury and pertinacity 

 that is quite wonderful, fighting and struggling for hours 

 together. And where a road intervenes between twoditches, 

 I have seen the battle carried on even in the dry dust, till 

 the rival toads,in spite of their natural aquatic propensities, 

 became perfectly dry and covered with sand, and in this 

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