62 



77/6 Common Toad. 



Vol. VIII. 



pondino- line along the belly. This proved 

 to arise from an entire slit in the old cuticle, 

 which exposed to view the new and brighter 

 skin underneath. Finding, therefore, what 

 was about to happen, I watched the whole 

 detail of this curious process. I soon ob- 

 served that the two halves of the skin, thus 

 completely divided, continued to recede fur- 

 ther and further from the centre, and become 

 folded and rugose; and after a short space, 

 by means of the continued twitching of the 

 animal's body, it was brought down in folds 

 on the sides. The hinder leg, first on one 

 side and then on the other, was brought for- 

 ward under the arm, which was pressed 

 down upon it, and on the hinder limb being 

 withdrawn, its cuticle was left inverted un- 

 der the arm ; and that of the anterior ex- 

 tremity was now loosened, and at length 

 drawn off by the assistance of the mouth. 

 The whole cuticle was thus detached, and 

 was now pushed by the two hands into the 

 mouth in a little ball, and swallowed at a 

 single gulp. I afterwards had repeated op- 

 portunities of watching this curious process, 

 %vhich did not materially vary in any in- 

 stance. 



The reproduction of the toad is in all es- 

 sential points similar to tiiat of the frog. 

 The ova are in a similar manner impreg- 

 nated during their passage, and their immer- 

 sion in water is equally necessary for the 

 development of the embryo. But instead of 

 being expelled in a mass, they are arranged 

 in a double series, placed alternately, and 

 perfectly regular. The jelly-like mass in 

 which the embryos are enveloped, forms a 

 continuous line about the eighth or sixth of 

 an inch in thickness, and extending to the 

 length of three or four feet. The ova are 

 deposited in the spring, about a fortnight 

 later than those of the frog, and it is not 

 until the approach of autumn, that the young 

 ones, having cast off" their tadpole form, come 

 to seek their food on the land. The tadpole 

 is smaller and blacker in all the stages of its 

 growth than tliat of the frog; but there are 

 no other peculiarities which are at all popu- 

 larly interesting. 



The stories of toads having been found in 

 the very substance of the wood of a tree, 

 and in the midst of a solid and hard rock, 

 are too numerous, and too generally asserted 

 and believed, to be passed over here, although 

 I have to regret that, after many and urgent 

 inquiries, and the examination of several as- 

 serted cases of that kind, I am unable to 

 throw any light upon this doubtful and mys- 

 terious question. Some years since I had a 

 toad sent me by a person of the highest 

 credit, with the assurance that it had been 

 taken alive out of a mass of indurated clay, 



of great depth, and that it had died immedi- 

 ately aiter being exposed to the air. Ihit 

 this case, like most, if not all, others of the 

 same kind, is liable to the objection that the 

 toad most probably fell into the hollow where 

 the men were at work, and was taken up by 

 them in ignorance of the mode in which it 

 had come there. Numerous experiments 

 have been made in order to try whether the 

 toads would die on being artihcially embed- 

 ded in masses of clay, of plaster of Paris, in 

 wooden boxes surrounded by plaster, and in 

 other similar circumstances; but hitherto all 

 have failed, although in some of them the 

 animals have certainly lived for a much 

 longer period than could have been expect- 

 ed, prolonged sometimes to many mouths, 

 or even to between one and two years. Upon 

 the v/hole, it appears to me, that whilst the 

 many concurrent assertions of credible per- 

 sons, who declare themselves to have been 

 witnesses of the emancipation of imprisoned 

 toads, forbids us hastily to refuse our assent, 

 or at least to deny the possibility of such a 

 circumstance, it must be confessed that we 

 still want better and more cautious evidence, 

 to authorize our implicit belief in these as- 

 serted facts. The truth probably is, that a 

 toad may have lain hid in the hollow of a 

 tree, during perhaps a whole autumn and 

 winter, and found itself, on the return of 

 spring, so far enclosed within its hiding 

 place, as to be unable to escape. As this 

 animal requires but little respiration, and 

 consequently but little food to support life, 

 especially when in a state of entire inac- 

 tivity, the smallest opening would be suffi- 

 cient to admit the requisite passage of air, 

 and even the occasional ingress of a small 

 insect ; and afterwards, when the tree was 

 cut up, the toad may have been found en- 

 closed, and the opening may have escaped 

 detection. To believe that a toad enclosed 

 within a mass of clay, or other similar sub- 

 stance, shall exist wholly without air or 

 food, for hundreds of years, and at length 

 be liberated alive, and capable of crawling, 

 on the breaking up of the matrix, now be- 

 come a solid rock, is certainly a demand 

 upon our credulity which few would be 

 ready to answer. 



That toads may be rendered very tame, 

 and be made to distinguish those who feed 

 and are kind to them, there are abundant 

 facts to testify. I have possessed a very 

 large one, which would sit on one of my 

 hands, and eat from the other; and tlie story 

 of Mr. Arscott's toad, in Devonshire, related 

 in Pennant's British Zoology, is too well 

 known to need repetition. 



The opinions formerly entertained of the 

 properties of the toad, were pre-eminently 



