CHAP. Tin.] TOADS ADDERS. 75 



seat or form under a loose stone* or at the foot of a fruit-lree or 

 box-edging. There are several habitues of this species in my 

 garden, whom I always see in their respective places during the 

 middle of the day. In the evening they issue out in search of 

 their prey. I found a toad one clay caught by the leg in a horse- 

 hair snare which had been placed for birds. The animal, not- 

 withstanding the usual placid and phlegmatic demeanour of its 

 race, seemed to be in a perfect fury, struggling and scratching 

 at everj thing within his reach, apparently much more in anger 

 than fear. Like many other individuals of quiet exterior, toads 

 are liable to great fits of passion and anger, as is seen in the 

 pools during April, when five or six will contend for the good 

 graces of their sultanas with a fury and pertinacity that is quite 

 wonderful, fighting and struggling for hours together. And 

 where a road intervenes between two ditches, I have seen the 

 battle carried on even in the dry dust, till the rival toads, in 

 spite of their natural aquatic propensities, became perfectly dry 

 and covered with sand, and in this powdered state will they con- 

 tinue fighting, regardless of the heat, which shrivels up their 

 skin, or of passers by, who may tread on them and maim them, 

 but cannot stop their fighting. There is more character and 

 enertry in a toad than is supposed. After the young ones have 

 acquired their perfect shape, they appear to leave the water, and 

 frequently the roads and paths are so covered with minute but 

 well-formed toadlings, that it is impossible to put your foot down 

 without crushing some of them. 



In some of the drier banks and hills in this country, there 

 are numerous adders ; like most other snakes, however, they 

 never willingly fly at people, only biting when trod upon or 

 taken hold of. I have had my dogs occasionally, but rarely, 

 bitten by adders. The swelling is very severe, and only reduced 

 after several hours' rubbing witli oil and laudanum. A retriever 

 of mine, having been bit by an adder, conceived the most deadly 

 hatred against them ever after, and killed a great number of them 

 without being again bit; his method was to snap quickly at the 

 adder, biting it in two almost instantaneously, and before the 

 reptile could retaliate. A favourite amusement of this dog, when 

 he was in Sussex with me some time afterwards, used to be 

 hunting the hedgerows for snakes and adders. He made a most 



