SEVEN- YEAE SLEEPERS 83 



snake at the Zoo has even been known to live eighteen 

 months in a voluntary fast, refusing all the most tempting 

 offers of birds and rabbits, merely out of pique at her 

 forcible confinement in a strange cage. As this was a lady 

 snake, however, it is possible that she only went on living 

 out of feminine obstinacy, so that this case really counts for 

 very little. 



Toads themselves are well known to possess all the quali- 

 ties of mind and body which go to make up the career of a 

 successful and enduring anchorite. At the best of times they 

 eat seldom and sparingly, while a forty days' fast, like Dr. 

 Tanner's, would seem to them but an ordinary incident in 

 their everyday existence. In the winter they hibernate by 

 burying themselves in the mud, or by getting down cracks 

 in the ground. It is also undoubtedly true that they creep 

 into holes . wherever they can find one, and that in these 

 holes they lie torpid for a considerable period. On the other 

 hand, there is every reason to believe that they cannot live 

 for more than a certain fixed and relatively short time 

 entirely without food or air. Dr. Buckland tried a number 

 of experiments upon toads in this manner experiments 

 wholly unnecessary, considering the trivial nature of the 

 point at issue and his conclusion was that no toad could 

 get beyond two years without feeding or breathing. There 

 can be very little doubt that in this conclusion he was 

 practically correct, and that the real fine old crusted ante- 

 diluvian toad-in-a-hole is really a snare and a delusion. 



That, however, does not wholly settle the question 

 about such toads, because, even though they may not be 

 all that their admirers claim for them, they may yet pos- 

 sess a very respectable antiquity of their own, and may be 

 very far from the category of mere vulgar cheats and 

 impostors. Because a toad is not as old as Methuselah, it 

 need not follow that he may not be as old as Old Parr ; 



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