TOADS. 27 



breed and deposit tlieir eggs. When hatched, the young Toads go 

 through the same metamorphosis as do the tadpoles of the Frogs. 



Their simple lives, though yevj inactive, are nevertheless very 

 enduring ; they respire little, are susceptible of hibernation, and 

 can remain for a considerable time shut up in a very confined 

 place. 



It is proper, however, to caution the reader against believing 

 all that has been written about the longevity of Toads. Neither 

 must implicit faith be given to the discovery of the living animal 

 (Fig. 7) in the centre of stones. " That Toads, Frogs, and 

 Newts, occasionally issue from stones broken in a quarry or in 

 sinking wells, and even from coal- strata at the bottom of a mine," 

 is true enough; but, as Dr. Buckland observes, "the evidence is 

 never perfect to show that these Amphibians were entirely enclosed 

 in a solid rock ; no examination is made until the creature is dis- 

 covered by the breaking of the mass in which it was contained, and 

 then it is too late to ascertain whether there was any hole or crevice 

 by which it might have entered." These considerations led 

 Dr. Buckland to undertake certain experiments to test the fact. 

 He caused blocks of coarse oolitic limestone and sandstone to be 

 prepared with cells of various sizes, in which he enclosed Toads of 

 different ages. The small Toads enclosed in the sandstone were 

 found to die at the end of thirteen months ; the same fate befell the 

 larger ones during the second year : they were watched through the 

 glass covers of their cells, and were never seen in a state of torpor, 

 but at each successive examination they had become more meagre, 

 until at last thej^ were found dead. This was probably too severe 

 a test for the poor creatures, the glass cover implying a degree of 

 hardness and drj-ness not natural to half amphibious Toads. More- 

 over, it is certain that both Toads and Frogs possess a singular faci- 

 lity for concealing themselves in the smallest crevices of the earth, 

 or in the smallest anfractuosities of stones jjlaced in dark places. 



This animal, so repulsive in form, has been furnished by 

 nature with a most efficient defensive armature ; namelj^^ an 

 acrid secretion which will be described farther on. It is a 

 bad leaper, an obscure and solitary creature, which shuns the 

 sight of man, as if it comprehended the blot it is on the fair 

 face of creation. It is, nevertheless, susceptible of education, and 



