204 OBSERVATIONS ON REPTILES. 



formerly to abound with toads in the spring, multi- 

 tudes being to be seen either crawling at the bottom, 

 or swimming at the surface. It is a curious incident 

 worth recording, that for the last three years not one 

 has been observed at that season in that locality, or 

 in any of the ponds and ditches in the adjoining 

 neighbourhood. At least I have not observed any 

 myself, though constantly on the watch for them ; 

 and, on mentioning the circumstance to another, he 

 told me he had noticed the same thing himself. A 

 damp plantation of some extent abuts upon the 

 water, and no clearance or other alteration of the 

 adjacent soil has taken place to explain this pheno- 

 menon. Query, whether the toads have deserted 

 their old quarters from any cause, or a mortality has 

 taken place among them, so that the few which have 

 escaped its influence are not observed ? 



NATTER-JACK. * 



THIS species of reptile is found in some plenty 

 on Gamlingay Heath, in this county, where it was 

 first noticed by Professor Henslow and myself in 

 August, 1824. Several, which 1 brought away with 

 me on that occasion, I succeeded in keeping alive 

 during a period of nearly two months. For the first 

 fortnight after their confinement, these animals re- 

 fused every kind of food that was offered to them ; 



* Bufo calamita, Laur. The account here given of this species 

 is extracted from a paper read by myself to the Cambridge 

 Philosophical Society in 1830, and printed in the third volume of 

 the Transactions of that body. 



