ANURA 183 



In 1893 toads were introduced into Gisborne. Mr W. Chambers 

 writing to the Poverty Bay Herald says: 



On the ist March thirty-nine toads were shipped by the Kaikoura, and 

 when the boxes were opened here on 23rd April thirty-four were found 

 in first-rate order. The five that died were most probably hurt before 

 shipment. The plan adopted was to put the torpid toads in boxes filled 

 with wet moss, which were put in the cool chamber and kept at a tempera- 

 ture of about 35 F. on the voyage. 



Mr Chambers has since supplied the following information to me 

 (i7th June, 1918): 



To allow them to recuperate before turning them out, I placed them on 

 the lawn under a large wire-netted cage, and fed them with worms, etc., 

 for a few days. This ended in disaster, as one night the rats got in and killed 

 half of them. I then turned the survivors out near an old tunnel on the 

 edge of a swamp. We saw one occasionally for a year or two after, when 

 they disappeared completely. I don't think they bred, as I kept a good 

 look-out for tadpoles and young toads. Two of them, a male and a female, 

 I kept in a glass cage for about two years, and when I judged the breeding 

 season had arrived (from their behaviour), I gave them access to a large 

 pan of water, but without result. These also came to an untimely end, 

 both dying on the same day from a surfeit of crickets. 



Mr Chambers was under the impression that these toads were 

 natterjacks (Bufo calamita), but Mr H. N. Watson of Horowhitu, 

 Palmerston North, who was with Mr Chambers at the time of their 

 arrival, has given me some further information on this interesting 

 importation. Writing to me in February, 1919, he says: 



The Toads were sent out by Mr Ralph Arthur, a brother of the late 

 Mrs W. Chambers, who lived, so far as I remember, near Newton Abbot in 

 Devonshire. They were collected by the boys of the neighbourhood, and 

 I think twopence each was given for them. They were the common English 

 Toad and not the Natterjack. They were packed in damp moss in tin boxes 

 with some perforations in the lids, and were kept in the cool chamber 

 of the steamer. There were about one hundred, and only three were dead 

 on arrival; their death was probably caused by rough handling when 

 captured. On arrival they had all paired and were spawning. It was 

 impossible to separate the males from the females ; there were a few more 

 of the former than of the latter. The females were all large and reddish ; 

 the males were much smaller and greenish. There were masses of spawn 

 in the boxes, and this we collected and put into a basin, but I think it 

 had not been fertilised, for none of it ever showed any signs of germination. 

 We changed the water at intervals and kept it in the sun, but as the month 

 was about April, we should not have been able to rear the tadpoles if any 

 had hatched. We selected five (three females and two males), and the rest 

 of the consignment (about ninety), so far as I remember, were liberated 

 in a swamp at Repongaere Station near Gisborne. They swam away and 

 that was the last seen of them. There were a great many moreporks there, 



