54 THE NATURAL HISTORY 



in the sexual system of plants : and the case is the same 

 as regards some of the fishes : as the eel, etc. 



The method in which toads procreate and bring forth 

 seems to me very much in the dark. Some authors say 

 that they are viviparous : and yet Ray classes them 

 among his oviparous animals ; and is silent with regard 

 to the manner of their bringing forth. Perhaps they 

 may be eaa fikv cootokoi, e^co Se ^(ootokoi, as is known to 

 he the case with the viper. 



The copulation of frogs (or at least the appearance of 

 it, for Swammerdam proves that the male has no penis 

 intrans), is notorious to everybody : because we see them 

 sticking upon each other's backs for a month together in 

 spring : and yet I never saw, or read, of toads being 

 observed in the same situation. It is strange that the 

 matter with regard to the venom of toads has not yet 

 been settled. That they are not noxious to some animals 

 is plain : for ducks, buzzards, owls, stone curlews, and 

 snakes, eat them, to my knowledge, with impunity. And 

 I well remember the time, but was not eye-witness to the 

 fact (though numbers of persons were) when a quack, at 

 this village, ate a toad to make the country people stare ; 

 afterwards he drank oil. • 



I have been informed also, from undoubted authority, 

 that some ladies (ladies you will say of peculiar taste) 

 took a fancy to a toad, which they nourished summer 

 after summer, for many years, till he grew to a monstrous 

 size, with the maggots which turn to flesh flies. The 

 reptile used to come forth every evening from an hole 

 under the garden-steps ; and was taken up, after supper, 

 on the table to be fed. But at last a tame raven, 

 kenning him as he put forth his head, gave him such a 

 severe stroke with his horny beak as put out one eye. 

 After this accident the creature languished for some time 

 and died. 



