THE BRITISH AMPHIBIANS. 13! 



is distinguished from the other by having no eyelids. The fourth 

 family, Salamandridae, is the only one on our list. 



In the Salamandridse there are no gills in the adult state ; there 

 are always two pairs of limbs however small they may be ; there are 

 teeth in both jaws ; there are maxillaries ; and there are movable 

 eyelids (except in one genus in which the animals are blind). The 

 only British genus is Triton (Plates xxxii., xxxiii., 86 to 88). 



It will be convenient for reference to deal with the genera in 

 alphabetical order, as we have done in the case of the mammals and 

 reptiles, although we have only three on our list. 



Bufo. Plate xxxi. EC AU DAT A. 



84. vulgaris, COMMON TOAD. Brownish ; no yellow stripe down 



back. 



85. calamita, NATTERJACK. Greenish ; yellow stripe down back. 



Toads have no teeth in either jaw. Their limbs are shorter and 

 thicker than those of the frogs, and placed further forwards on the 

 body. The toes are short and webbed, but not so much so as a 

 frog's, and their whole appearance is that of animals more adapted 

 for crawling and walking than for leaping and swimming. The eggs 

 are not laid in shapeless masses like those of the frog, but in two 

 double rows or strings, which look like glass tubes filled with black 

 beads. These strings, which are hung on to plants in the water, 

 sometimes reach fifteen feet in length in the case of the common toad, 

 those of the natterjack being half as long, and they swell up until they 

 are about a quarter of an inch in diameter. The tadpoles emerge 

 from the protecting jelly in from ten days to a fortnight, and for a few 

 days hang on its remains, leaving them for the stems arid leaves of 

 water-plants, to which they cling by the sucker under their throats. 

 They are then about half an inch long, and grow fast as their 

 external gills begin to shrink. Some six weeks after attaining their 

 freedom the hind legs appear, and in another three weeks the fore-limbs 

 are protruded. Soon afterwards the tail is gradually absorbed, but 

 not entirely so until after the toad has abandoned the water, to 

 which, when mature, it returns every year for breeding purposes in 

 the middle of April. The young of the natterjack are, in all stages, 

 much smaller than these of the common species. 



Toads feed on insects, snails, and earthworms, the worms being 

 caught in the middle and cleaned between the fingers as they are 

 stowed away into the mouth. They are generally busy after rain 

 and towards evening, and have often been observed hunting in their 

 leisurely way on moonlight nights. They are "excellent for beetles," 

 by beetles meaning cockroaches, but it is not everyone who 

 considers a toad's appearance prepossessing enough to have it in 

 the house. Dirty as they look they are really very clean, and 

 change their skin every few weeks by peeling it off and eating it. 

 The new skin is at first of a lighter colour than the old one, and the 

 male is generally rather smarter than the female. The Toad 

 hibernates away from water in a hollow tree or in a hole in the 

 ground, but does not live for centuries in solid rock, neither does it 



