136 OUR REPTILES. 



Tate has given a fuller account of the nocturnal 

 habits of this species than we have seen re- 

 corded elsewhere : 



After dark, or at least, after the rising of the moon, 

 I was returning home across Wisley Heath, and when 

 near a pond something ran quickly across the path. I took 

 it up, and saw by its bright vertebral stripe, showing clearly 

 in the moonlight, that it was a natterjack. I therefore com- 

 menced looking round the pond, and caught no less than 

 fifty-seven of them. The noise they were making was very 

 great; their croak being hoarse, and one continued note, 

 instead of, as in the common toad and frog, a succession of 

 short notes. The natterjack showed more sense than the 

 toads, by leaving off croaking, and squatting close to the 

 ground to escape observation whenever I approached one of 

 their haunts, while the toads kept croaking and hopping. 

 I found them always in shallow water (in which they can 

 sit with their heads out), and, as their name implies, among 

 reeds very often. I see now why their eyes are so much 

 brighter by night than by day, as they are evidently noc- 

 turnal in their habits ; but until this time I have always 

 caught them on hot sunny days going about the heath in 

 pairs.* 



The "mephitic toad " of Shaw's " Zoology " 

 appears to be the present species, for his descrip- 

 tion is that of an cc olive toad, spotted with 

 brown, with reddish warts, and sulphur-coloured 

 dorsal line/' Such being the case, we must take 

 exception to some portion of his remarks : 



* W. R. Tate, in Science Gossip), vol. i. p. 111. 



