180 ANURA 



CHAP. 



appendages on each side of the body. Protective concealment 

 is possibly the reason of these queer outgrowths. 



B. viridis s. variabilis, the Green or Variable Toad, reaches a 

 length of about 3 inches, and is the prettiest toad of Europe. 

 The skin is distinctly smooth, the numerous porous, large and 

 small warts being flattened. Parotoid glands are well developed, 

 and a similar pair of glands sometimes occurs on the inner side 

 of the calf, especially in Central Asiatic and in Algerian specimens. 

 The coloration is very variable and changeable. The ground- 

 colour of the upper parts is creamy, with large and small, partly 

 confluent and irregularly shaped spots and patches of green, here 

 and there interspersed with vermilion-red specks, especially along 

 the sides of the back. The under parts are whitish, sometimes 

 spotted with black. The iris is brass-coloured, greenish-yellow, 

 with fine dark dots. The male does not differ from the female 

 in size, but has an internal subgular vocal sac, a conspicuous 

 callosity on the inner side of the first finger, and nuptial brushes 

 on the first three fingers and on the inner palmar tubercle. 



The changing of colour affects mainly the intensity of the 

 green ; the same individual which now looks almost uniformly 

 dull, almost grey, with dusky olive patches, will, if put into 

 grass and sprinkled with water, within a few minutes appear in 

 a tastefully combined garb of grass-green on a creamy ground. 

 Some Southern and Eastern specimens have a creamy stripe along 

 the vertebral line, thereby closely resembling B. calamita, from 

 which, however, they can always be distinguished by the little 

 pads below the joints of the toes ; these pads being single in B. 

 viridis, and double in B. calamita and in B. vulgaris, 



The Green Toad spends most of the day in holes, although it is 

 not averse to daylight, and it roams about chiefly in the evening. 

 It can jump well, much better and pftener than the Brown Toad. 

 The food consists strictly of insects of all kinds, and most 

 individuals prefer slow starvation to eating an earthworm. 

 Although continuing to live four or five years in captivity, they 

 do not readily become tame ; they are indeed no longer wild, and 

 when handled they no longer emit their peculiar insipid smell, but 

 on being approached they still crouch deeply into the grass, or 

 withdraw into their holes, just as they did when recently caught. 

 The voice is heard during the pairing season, and sounds like the 

 slow creaking of a door, or a combination of a spinning top and 



