FROGS AND TOADS 



207 



object of aversion, and in country districts is not infrequently accredited with venomous 

 properties. Toad-spawn is plentiful in ponds and ditches in the early spring, and may 

 be distinguished from that of the frog by the fact of its being deposited in chain-like 

 strings, the eggs being arranged in a double alternating row, instead of in irregular masses, 

 as obtains with the last-named species. The individual eggs are, moreover, smaller, and 

 deposited two or three weeks later in the season than those of the frog. A second and 

 somewhat rarer British toad is known as the NATTERJACK. It may be distinguished from 

 the ordinary species by the shorter hind limbs, the more prominent eyes, and the con- 

 spicuous yellow line down the middle of its back. It is also somewhat more active than 

 the common species. 



The last member of the group which demands brief notice is the singular WATER-TOAD 

 of Surinam. This animal, also known as the PlPA, is an inhabitant of the moist forest regions 

 of the Guianas and Central America, and remarkable on account of the singular phenomena 

 connected with its breeding habits. The eggs, from 60 to over 100 in number, are deposited 

 by the female in the water in the ordinary manner, but at this stage they are taken in 

 hand by the male and literally planted in the back of the female, whose skin in this region 

 becomes abnormally soft and thickened at this season. The young toads undergo their 

 complete development in the parental integument, each egg and its resulting embryo occupying 

 a separate primarily cylindrical chamber, which by lateral pressure becomes hexagonal, resembling 

 a honeycomb-cell. Eighty-two days are occupied from the time of the deposition of the eggs 

 until the young toads emerge into the outer world, their appearance as they make their 

 debut, with here a head and there one or it may be two limbs thrust out from the surface of 

 the parent's back, being highly grotesque. 



CHAPTER VII 



NEWTS AND SALAMANDERS 



THE Newts and Salamanders, or Tailed Amphibians, are distinguished from the preceding 

 group of the Frogs and Toads by the retention of a tail throughout life. In this 

 manner they very nearly resemble the advanced larval or tadpole phases of the latter. 

 In some instances, in fact, the 

 earlier or externally gill-bearing 

 tadpole phase is persistent. The 

 geographical distribution of the 

 Salamander Tribe is much less 

 extensive than that of the Frogs 

 and Toads, but few are found south 

 of the Equator, and they are entirely 

 unknown in Australia or in Africa 

 south of the Sahara. 



Two members of the group 

 are indigenous to the British 

 Islands, where they arc familiarly 

 known as NEWTS, ASKERS, EKFETS, 

 or EFTS. The larger and handsomer 

 of the two, the CRESTED NE\VT, 

 occurs in ponds and ditches 



ph,u t, jam,, B or, J? . 



throughout the warmer months of 

 the year. It grows to a length of 

 nearly 6 inches, of which the tail 

 constitutes about one moiety. Its 



WARTED OR CRESTED NEWT 



T , 



I nil harmless mite creature is accredited b\ many country people with venomous 



