174 OVIPAROUS QUADRUPEDS. 



plucking the natural feathers of the parrot, and rubbing the place with 

 the blood of this creature, the following feathers, inftead of being green, 

 as they otherwife would be, are red or yellow. Its colour is reddifh. 



THE TOAD. 



ITS colours vary with the feafon ; fometimes inclining to red, then to 

 black, or to olive. Why fhould the figure of the Toad difguft more 

 than that of the Frog ? Its form and proportions are not unlike ; it 

 chiefly differs in colour, being blacker, and by its flow and heavy mo- 

 tion, which exhibits nothing of the agility of the frog. Its body is round- 

 ed and broad j its back covered with a duflcy, pimpled hide j its belly 

 large andfwagging; its pace laboured and crawling ; its retreat gloomy 

 ahd filthy ; and by thefe ideas its appearance excites difguft. Its 

 pimples are often greenifh black. The auditory canal is clofed by a 

 membrane. Its front feet arc fliort, and have four toes ; thofe behind 

 have fix toes, united by a membrane. Its head is as large as its body, 

 its jaws have no teeth ; its eyes are fwelled ; its motion, when feized, is a 

 Jwelling ; it leaps badly j it ejefts a liquor (thought to be its urine) when 

 feized j and this, in fome kinds and climates, has the repute of being ve- 

 nomous, or at lead hurtful. The humour which fweats from its body, 

 and its flaver, have the fame charadler j but much feems to have been 

 faid beyond what our European Toads verify. 



Lives in ditches, drains, dunghills, and caverns, in forefts, and be- 

 neath great ftones ; here remaining all day hidden, unlefs a fhower call 

 it out. Prefers night to feek its prey. Is amphibious ; lives on worms 

 and infers, fnails and beetles, which it feizcs by darting out its length 

 of tongue J crawls in moid weather; couple as frogs, early in fpring, 

 fometimes on land, but ufually in the water; are united fome hours. The 

 obftetrical afliftance which the male lends the female, is a peculiarity in 

 this fpecies. In a fummer*s evening, a French gentleman perceived, in 

 the king's gardens at Paris, two toads coupled. Two fa6ls equally new 

 furprifed him : the firll was the extreme difficulty the female had in lay- 

 ing her eggs ; the fecond was the afliftance lent her by the male for this 

 purpofe. The eggs of the female lie in her body, like beads on a ftring ; 

 after the firft, by great effort, was excluded, the male caught it wicli his 

 c hinder 



