68 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE 



pursue these studies still with such vigour, and are in suet 

 forwardness with regard to reptiles and fishes. 



The reptiles, few as they are, I am not acquainted with 

 so well as I could wish, with regard to their natural history 

 There is a degree of dubiousness and obscurity attending 

 the propagation of this class of animals, something ana 

 logous to that of the cryptogamia in the sexual system o 

 plants : and the case is the same with regard to some of the 

 fishes ; as the eel, &c. 



The method in which toads procreate and bring forth 

 seems to be very much in the dark. Some authors saj 

 that they are viviparous : and yet Ray classes them amon^ 

 his oviparous animals ; and is silent with regard to the 

 manner of their bringing forth. Perhaps they may be 

 eao) fiiev &>OTO/C<M, efo> Be o>oTo/cot, as is known to be the case 

 with the viper. 



The copulation of frogs (or at least the appearance o: 

 it ; for Swammerdam proves that the male has no pent, 

 intrans) is notorious to everybody : because we see their 

 sticking upon each others backs for a month together ir 

 the spring : and yet I never saw, or read, of toads bein^ 

 observed in the same situation. 1 It is strange that the 

 matter with regard to the venom of toads has not beer 

 yet settled. That they are not noxious to some animal; 

 is plain : for ducks, buzzards, owls, stone curlews, anc 

 snakes, eat them, to my knowledge, with impunity. Anc 

 I well remember the time, but was not eye-witness to the 

 fact (though numbers of persons were) when a quack, ai 

 this village, ate a toad to make the country-people stare 

 afterwards he drank oil. 2 



1 Among Gilbert White's papers Professor Bell found one " in a boy's hand ' 

 (doubtless a note dictated to his nephew John) relating to the venom of a toad 

 He says that a little Terrier-bitch " touched it very gently with her nose . . 

 and instantly the foam came from her mouth, and her face and eyes wen 

 strongly convulsed. This continued upon her half-an-hour, &c." (Bell's ed. 

 vol. i. p. 52 note. ) [R. B. S.] 



* Sir William Jardine's edition of White's "Selborne" contains the following 

 interesting note on Letter XVII : " This is a letter upon reptiles, the natura 

 history of which, as well as that of fishes, White had little opportunity o 

 studying. Toads procreate exactly in the same manner as frogs, and both an 



