JDirttowiry of <Hm'matc& ftatute. 689 



blackish, bordered with whitish rusty ; tail 

 feutlH-rs tij.t with wliite. The female is 

 rather less than the male ; the hlack on the 

 forehead not so large nor so deep ; and the 



(OITHALOS PBNDtJLINOB.) 



r parts more clouded with rust-colour, 

 are found in Russia, Poland, along the 

 banks of the Danube, where it breeds, and 

 in the south of France and Italy. It fre- 

 quents the reedy banks of rivers and lakes ; 

 and its food consists of the seeds of the 

 reeds, and of molluscs and aquatic insects. 



TOAD. A tailless Batrachian Reptile be- 

 longing to the genus Eufo ; of which there 

 ore several species. They are characterized 

 by a thick and squat body, much swollen, 

 and covered with warts or tubercles ; the head 

 large, flat on the top, with a protuberance 

 studded with pores behind each eye, from 

 which a fetid milky secretion is expressed ; 

 no teeth in either jaw, the hind limbs but 

 little elongated ; and the toes very slightly 

 webbed. The COMMON TOAD {Bufu vulyuria) 

 is found in gardens, woods, and fields, and 

 frequently makes its way into cellars, or any 

 obscure recesses where it may find a supply 

 of food and security from too great a degree 

 of cold. Early in spring, it retires to the 



TOlD (BOPO VOLOART8.) 



waters, where it continues during the breed- 

 i ing season, and deposits its ova or spawn in 

 I the form of double necklace-like chains or 

 strings of beautifully transparent gluten, of 

 ! the length of three or four feet, the ova 

 I throughout the whole length having the ap- 

 pearance of so many small jet-black globules 

 or beads : these are in reality no other than 



the tadpoles or larvae convoluted into a- 

 globular form, and waiting for the period of 

 their evolution or hatching, which takes 

 place in the space of about fourteen or fifteen 

 days, when they break from the surrounding 

 gluten, and, like the tadpoles of Frogs, swim 

 about in the water, imbibing nourishment 

 from various animalcules, &c., till their legs 

 are formed, the tail gradually becomes ob- 

 literated, and the animals quit the water for 

 the surface of the ground, which generally 

 happens early in the autumn. The prevail- 

 ing colour of the Common Toad is an obscure 

 brown above, much paler and irregularly 

 spotted beneath. It is, however, occasionally 

 found of an olive cast, with darker variega- 

 tions ; and sometimes, particularly in the 

 earlier part of summer, the limbs are marked 

 with reddish spots ; while a tinge of yellow 

 often pervades the under part* both of the 

 limbs and body. Much has been said by the 

 older writers with respect to the Toads'* 

 supposed venom, but it appears to be per- 

 fectly free from any poisonous properties. 

 It is true that dogs, on seizing a Toad, and 

 carrying it for some little time in their 

 mouth, will appear to be affected with a very 

 slight swelling of the lips, accompanied by 

 an increased discharge of saliva the mere 

 effect of the slightly acrimonious fluid which 

 the Toad on irritation exudes from its skin, 

 and which seems, in this country at least, to 

 produce no dangerous symptoms in such ani- 

 mals as happen to taste or swallow it. The 

 limpid fluid also, which this reptile suddenly 

 discharges when disturbed, is a mere watery 

 liquor, perfectly free from any acrimonious 

 or noxious qualities. Its usual pace is a kind 

 of crawl ; and on being alarmed or tlireat- 

 ened with danger, it stops, swells its body, 

 and, on its being handled, a portion of the 

 cutaneous secretion, just mentioned, exudes 

 from the follicles. 



It is well known that the Toad, like many 

 other Amphibia, can support a long absti- 

 nence, and requires but a small quantity of 

 air : but in the accounts generally given of 

 Toads discovered in stones, wood, &c., the 

 animals are said to have been completely 

 impacted or imbedded, and without any 

 space for air. In confirmation of this doc- 

 trine, Mr. Jesse relates " the following fact. 

 A gentleman put a Toad into a small flower- 

 pot, and secured it M> that no insect could 

 l>cnetnxte into it, and then buried it in the 

 ground at a sufficient depth to protect it 

 from the influence of frost. At the end of 

 twenty years he took it up, and found the 

 Toad increased in size, and apparently 

 healthy." He then informs his readers that 

 " Dr. Townsou, in his tracts on the respira- 

 tion of the Amphibia, proves from actual ex- 

 periment, that, while those animals with 

 whose economy we are best acquainted re- 

 ceive their principal supply of liquids by the 

 mouth, the frog and salamander tribes take 

 in theirs through the skin alone ; all the 

 aqueous particles being absorbed by the skin, 

 and all they reject being transpired through 

 it. He found that a frog, when placed on 

 blotting-paper well soaked with water, ab- 

 sorbed nearly its own weight of the fluid 

 in the short time of an hour and a half ; and 



8 K 8 



