160 THE COMMON TOAD. 



that season, the creature does not care to swim about, or even to enter the water. The color 

 of Tliis species is olive-brown with small dark spots. 



The \^ry odd-looking species which is popularly and appropriately termed the Solitary 

 Fkog is a native of North America, and is remarkable for several peculiarities of form, the eye 

 and the foot being chiefly notable. 



It is a land-loving species, never seen in or near water except during the breeding-season. 

 During the greater part of the year it resides in holes which it scoops in the sandy soil, and at 

 the bottom of which it sits watching for prey, much like a gigantic ant-lion. In order to assist 

 it in digging, the animal is furnished with a flat, sharp-edged spur, with winch it scoops out 

 the loose soil. Sometimes, however, it wedges itself into the sand, tail foremost, and shovels 

 its way downwards much after the fashion of the crab. The hole is about six inches in depth. 



Quick though it is in tins labor, it is but a, sluggish and inactive creature when compared 

 with most of its kin, being a very poor leaper, and slow in most of its movements. It is gener- 

 ally to be seen in the month of March, just after the spring rains, and is a very hardy species, 

 caring little for cold, and traversing the snow without apparent inconvenience. 



The eye of the Solitary Frog is very beautiful, and at the same time most remarkable. It 

 is large, full, and of a rich topaz hue, and across its centre run two bold black lines at right 

 angles to each other, so as to form a cross very like that which is seen upon starch grains 

 when viewed by polarized light. 



Altogether, the aspect of this species is very unique. It looks much more like a toad than 

 a frog, and has a remarkably blunt snout. Its general color is olive, mottled with brown above, 

 and covered with tubercles. Along each side of the spine runs a line of "king's yellow," and 

 the under parts are yellowish-white. The average' length of the Solitary Frog rather exceeds 

 two inches. 



The last of the true Frogs which can be mentioned in this work is the Bombardier 

 (SombindtoT iffneus), a native of many parts of Europe, and common in France. 



It is fond of water, and seldom found in very dry localities. When disturbed, it lias the 

 power of emitting a strong and very unpleasant odor of garlic, which serves it as a means of 

 defence, like the penetrating scent of the common ringed snake. It, is active, and can both 

 swim and leap well. The eggs are laid in long strings, and the tadpole is of a very large size 

 when compared with the earliest state of its perfect existence, and, like the paradoxical Frog 

 already described, is larger in the tadpole state than after it has assumed its perfect form. 



Thecolorof the Bombardier is grayish-brown above, and orange below, marbled or spotted 

 with blue-black. 



Wk now arrive at another section of Batrachians, including those creatures which are 

 known under the title of Toads, anil of which the Common Toad of Europe is so familiar 

 an example. The members of this section may lie known by the absence of teeth in the jaws 

 and the well-developed ears. 



The general aspect and habits of this creature are too well known to require more than a 

 cursory notice. Few creatures, perhaps, have been more' reviled and maligned than the Toad, 

 and none with less reason. In the olden days, the Toad was held to be the very compendium 

 of poison, and to have so deadly an effect upon human beings, that two persons were related to 

 have died from eating the leaf of a sage bush under which a Toad had burrowed. Still, even 

 in those times, it was held to possess two virtues, the one being the celebrated jewel supposed 

 to be found in its head, and the other the power of (airing bleeding at the nose. 



This jewel could not be procured by dissection, but must be obtained by causing the owner 

 to eject it. " But the art," says one of the quaint old writers, "is in taking of it out, for they 

 say it must lie taken out of the head alive before the Toad be dead, with a piece of cloth of the 

 color of red Scarlet, wherewithal they are much delighted, so that while they stretch out them- 

 -e' .es as it were in sport upon that cloth, they cast out the stone of their head, but instantly 

 they sup it up again, unless it, be taken from them through some secret hole in the said cloth. 



