74 The Natural History of Selborne 



thing analogous to that of the cryptogamia in the sexual system of 

 plants : and the case is the same with regard to some of the fishes ; 

 as the eel, &c. 



The method in which toads procreate and bring forth 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 mannner of their bringing forth. Perhaps they 

 may be iata /ucv WOTOKOI, c^w c fcooro/cot, 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 know- 

 ledge, 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 



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. 



