BUFO AMERICANUS. 



19 



familiar to all, consisting of a prolonged trill, continued by different individuals, 

 both day and night, and not unpleasant when at a sufficient distance. 



The toad is looked upon with aversion by the greater part of mankind; its 

 swollen body, its warty and tuberculous skin, with the large parotid glands, give 

 it such a repulsive appearance, that it seems hard to believe an innocuous 

 disposition can belong to a shape and colour so offensive to the eye; hence the 

 vulgar have always considered it venomous: it is nevertheless perfectly harmless, 

 destroying only the insects that nature has apportioned for its food. To an 

 unhandsome exterior, however, it often owes its safety, being very abundant and 

 entirely helpless. 



It has been commonly supposed that the humour exuding from the skin and 

 glands is poisonous, yet no experiments have proved it so, and certainly no injury 

 has ever arisen from handling or examining the animal. Experiments have been 

 made in Europe with the secretions of the common toad of that continent, and 

 apparently with different results; for naturalists are still at variance — Laurenti* 

 considered the exudation innocuous, while Okent believes it poisonous, and his 

 opinion is supported by some interesting experiments of Davy,J which prove that 

 "the skin of the European toad is possessed of minute follicles, secreting a thick 

 yellow fluid, of a poisonous nature." 



General Remarks. Leconte was the first to separate this toad from the 

 southern animal, with which it had been previously confounded. 



Schlegel considers the Bufo Americanus as identical with the common toad of 

 Europe, from which however it differs specifically. 



1. The head is smaller in proportion. 



* Laurenti, Synop. Rep. p. 195. f Oken, Zool., B. II., § 198. 



I Dr. Davy, Phil. Trans, for 1826, Part II., p. 127. 



