NATURAL III STORY OF SELBORNE. 51 



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, kenning 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 " Wisdom of 

 God in the Creation" (p. 365), concerning the migration of frogs 

 from their breeding ponds. In this account he at once subverts that 

 foolish opinion of their dropping from the clouds in rain ; showing 

 that it is from the grateful coolness and moisture of those showers 

 that they are tempted to set out on their travels, which they defer 

 till those fall. Frogs are as yet in their tadpole state ; but, in a few 

 weeks, our lanes, paths, fields, will swarm for a few days with 

 myriads of those emigrants, no larger than my little finger nail. 

 Swammerdam gives a most accurate account of the method and 

 situation in which the male impregnates the spawn -of the female. 

 How wonderful is the economy of Providence with regard to the 

 limbs of so vile a reptile ! While it is an aquatic it has a fish-like 

 tail, and no legs : as soon as the legs sprout, the tail drops off as 

 useless, and the animal betakes itself to the land ! 



secretion of saliva in the mouth of a dog, and evidently gives pain. Mr. Herbert says a 

 pike will seize a toad, but immediately disgorges it, while a frog is swallowed. 



There has always been an aversion or disgust at toads. The older poets clothed him in 

 a garb " ugly and venomous," and one of our master-bards has likened the Evil Spirit to 

 him, as a semblance of all that is devilish or disgusting. 



Him they found 



Squat like n toad, close at the ear of Eve, 

 Assaying with all his devilish art to reach 

 The organs of her fancy. 



Thus we are taught, and the feeling is handed down from family to family, to loathe a 

 harmless animal. The bite is innocent of any after consequences, and we never saw a toad 

 attempt to bite. The exudation of the skin is only used in self-defence. They are 

 extremely useful in the destruction of insects, and they will be found to be valuable as well 

 as amusing assistants in a greenhouse or conservatory. Sir Joseph Banks wrote " I have 

 from my childhood, in conformity with the precepts of a mother void of all imaginary 

 fear, been in the constant habit of taking toads in my hand, holding them there some 

 time, and applying them to my face and nose as it may happen. My motive for doing this 

 very frequently is to inculcate the opinion I have held, since I was told by my mother, 

 that the toad is actually a harmless animal ; and to whose manner of life man is certainly 

 iinder some obligation, as its food is chiefly those insects which devour his crops and annoy 

 him in various ways." 



