384 



HISTORY OF FROGS, LIZARDS, AND SERPENTS. 



health or food that at other times they are sup- 

 plied with, they show, by their silence, how 

 much they are displeased with the weather. 

 All very dry weather is hurtful to their health, 

 and prevents them from getting their prey. 

 They subsist chiefly upon worms and snails ; 

 and as drought prevents these from appearing, 

 the frog is thus stinted in its provisions, and 

 also wants that grateful humidity which mois- 

 tens its skin, and renders it alert and active. 



As frogs adhere closely to the backs of their 

 own species, so it has been found, by repeated 

 experience, they will also adhere to the backs 

 of fishes. Few that have ponds, but know 

 that these animals will stick to the backs of 

 carp, and fix their fingers in the corner of each 

 eye. In this manner they are often caught 

 together ; the carp blinded and wasted away. 

 Whether this proceeds from the desires of the 

 frog, disappointed of its proper mate, or whe- 

 ther it be a natural enmity between frogs and 

 fishes. I will not take upon me to say. A 

 story told us by Walton, might be apt* to in- 

 cline us to the latter opinion. 



" As Dubravius, a bishop of Bohemia, was 

 walking with a friend by a large pond in that 

 country, they saw a frog, when a pike lay very 

 sleepily and quiet by the shore side, leap upon 

 his head, and the frog having expressed ma- 

 lice or anger by his swoln cheeks and staring 

 eyes, did stretch out his legs, and embraced 

 the pike's head, and presently reached them 

 to his eyes, tearing with them and his teeth 

 those tender parts ; the pike, irritated with 

 anguish, moves up and down the water, and 

 rubs himself against weeds, and whatever he 

 thought might quit him of his enemy ; but all 

 in vain, for the frog did continue to ride tri- 

 umphantly, and to bite and torment the pike 

 till his strength failed, and then the frog sunk 

 with the pike to the bottom of the water: then 

 presently the frog appeared again at the top, 

 and croaked, and seemed to rejoice like a con- 

 queror; after which he presently retired to his 

 secret hole. The bishop, that had beheld the 

 battle, called his fisherman to fetch his nets, 

 and by all means to get the pike, that they 

 might declare what had happened. The pike 

 was drawn forth, and both his eyes eaten out; 

 at which, when they began to wonder, the 

 fisherman wished them to forbear, and assured 

 them he was certain that pikes were often so 

 served." 



CHAP. Ill, 



OF THE TOAD, AND ITS VARIETIES. 



IF we regard the figure of the toad, there 

 seems nothing in it that should disgust more 



than that of the frog. Its form and propor- 

 tions are nearly the same ; and it chiefly dif- 

 fers in colour, which is blacker; and its slow 

 and heavy motion, which exhibits nothing of 

 the agility of the frog : yet such is the force of 

 habit, begun in early prejudice, that those 

 who consider the one as a harmless playful 

 animal, turn from the other with horror and 

 disgust. The frog is considered as a useful 

 assistant, in ridding our grounds of vermin ; 

 the toad, as a secret enemy, that only wants 

 an opportunity to infect us with its venom. 



The imagination, in this manner biassed by 

 its terrors, paints out the toad in the most hi- 

 deous colouring, and clothes it in more than 

 natural deformity. Its body is broad; its 

 back flat ; covered with a dusky pimpled 

 hide ; the belly is large and swagging ; the 

 pace laboured and crawling ; its retreat gloomy 

 and filthy ; and its whole appearance calcula- 

 ted to excite disgust and horror : yet, upon my 

 first seeing a toad, none of all these deformi- 

 ties in the least affected me with sensations of 

 loathing : born, as I was, in a country where 

 there are no toads, I had prepared my imagi- 

 nation for some dreadful object ; but there 

 seemed nothing to me more alarming in the 

 sight, than in that of a common frog ; and in- 

 deed, for some time, I mistook, and handled 

 the one for the other. When first informed 

 of my mistake, I very well remember my sen- 

 sations : I wondered how I had escaped with 

 safety, after handling and dissecting a toad, 

 which I had mistaken for a frog. I then be- 

 gan to lay in a fund of horror against th 

 whole tribe, which, though convinced they 

 are harmless, I shall never get rid of. My 

 first imaginations were too strong not only lor 

 my reason, but for the conviction of my 

 senses. 



As the toad bears a general resemblance of 

 figure to the frog, so also it resembles that ani- 

 mal in its nature and appetites. Like the 

 frog, the toad is amphibious; like that animal, 

 it lives upon worms and insects, which it seizes 

 by darting out its length of tongue; and 

 in the same manner also it crawls about in 

 moist weather. The male and female couple 

 as in all the frog kind ; their time of propaga- 

 tion being very early in the spring. Some- 

 times the females are seen upon land oppressed 

 by the males; but more frequently they ars 



