52 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 



dam proves that the male has no penis intrans) is noto- 

 rious to every body : because we see them sticking upon each 

 others 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 knowledge, 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. 



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, ken- 

 ning 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 excellent account there is from Mr. Derham, in Ray's Wis- 

 dom of God in the Creation, concerning the migration of frogs 



is oviparous, depositing its eggs in dung-hills and hot-beds, or in hedge-banks, where the requi- 

 sites of heat and a certain degree of moisture are combined. The viper, or adder (vipera vul- 

 garis) is ovo-viviparous ; and the brittling, " blind-worm," or slow-worm" (anguis fragilis) , is 

 the same, the eggs of both the latter being hatched within the body of the parent. Toads pro- 

 create in exactly the same manner as frogs, the fertilization of the ova taking place subsequent 

 to their extrusion from the body, as is the case with fishes. Their spawn is generally deposited 

 in similar situations to that of frogs, but may sometimes be found in puddles left by the rain. The 

 ovales are much smaller, and occur in long n,ecklace-like catenations, those of frogs being in irre- 

 gular masses. Several of our more eminent naturalists agree in separating from the sub- 

 class reptiiia, those genera which, like the frogs, toads, and salamanders, propagate by 

 spawn deposited in water, bringing them together as a distinct sub-class, amphibia, and restricting 

 the reptiles to those which are produced from eggs brought to maturity either within the body, 

 or by the heat of the sun, or of fermentation. All the true reptiles commence their existence 

 upon land, even the sea turtles resorting to the shores to breed ; while the whole of the amphibia, 

 on the other hand, even those which live most upon land, are bred in the water, and at least for 

 a period of their lives (some always) respire through the medium of gills. ED. 



* A slightly acrid secretion is said to exude from the pores of the skin of toads, sufficiently 

 caustic to irritate a wound ; but even this 1 am doubtful of, as the animal is usually very dry. 

 They are not otherwise venomous. It may be here mentioned that a second species, the natter- 

 jack toad (feu/o calamita), exists in many parts of England, and particularly on the heaths arouud 

 London. Its general aspect is very like that of the common one, but it may easily be distin- 

 guished by having a yellow line along the back ; its habits, also, are more active, and it does not 

 leap, its pace being a sort of shuffling run. A third species is suspected to exist in Ire- 

 land. ED. 



