vi BUFONIDAE 173 



were not " fascinated by the fiery eyes " but were stalked into 

 a corner and then pounced upon immediately when they moved. 

 The shells of snails can for half a day be felt through the body ; 

 they then dissolve or are disgorged. The dung, which is passed in 

 large, long masses, is often full of fine earthy matter, the contents 

 of the earthworm's intestines, and sometimes it contains the 

 chitinous remains of certain beetles which are supposed to be 

 excessively rare. I know of no instance of slugs being eaten. 



The regular hunting -time begins with the evening and 

 is continued throughout bright nights, the toads crawling 

 and hopping about. They are expert climbers of rocks, and 

 succeed in reaching apparently inaccessible places by shoving 

 themselves up between vertical walls, and taking advantage of 

 any roughnesses for foothold. Every few weeks they shed their 

 skins. Without any preliminary symptoms or loss of appetite 

 or liveliness, the body makes a few twisting motions, the back 

 is now and then curved, and the skin splits down the middle 

 line. Owing to the more forcible contortions of the body it 

 slides down to the right and left of the back, whereupon the 

 toad gets hold of the peeling-off skin with fingers and toes, 

 scraping the head and sides, and conveys the thin, transparent, 

 slightly tinged skin into the mouth, slips out of it backwards 

 and swallows it. The new surface is then quite wet and shiny, 

 but it soon dries and hardens. 



Many toads, for instance the Common Toad and the Pantherine 

 Toad, assume a peculiar attitude when surprised. Instead of 

 blowing themselves up by filling their lungs with air, they 

 raise themselves upon their four limbs as high as possible, but 

 turning the back towards the enemy in a slanting position, either 

 to the right or to the left side, apparently in order to present as 

 much surface as possible, in other words to look their biggest. 



Some of my specimens hibernated regularly for a few months, 

 burying themselves completely in loose, dry soil, under leaves, or, 

 a favourite place, in a heap of cocoa-nut fibre. Others, and 

 this applies also to English specimens transferred from the 

 garden into the greenhouse, are lively all the year round, but 

 even they withdraw for an occasional sleep of a few weeks at 

 any time of the year. 



The whole family of large toads came to a sad end after four 

 years, when they were put into new temporary quarters, a slate- 



