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THE COMMON TOAD. 445 
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 a leaf of a sage-bush under which a Toad had burrowed. 
In France this poor creature’ is shamefully persecuted, the idea of its 
venomous and spiteful nature being widely disseminated and deeply rooted. 
The popular notion is that the Toad is poisonous throughout its life, but that 
after the age of fifty years it acquires venomous fangs like those of the 
serpents. 
In point of fact, the Toad is a most useful animal, devouring all kinds of 
insect vermin, and making its rounds by night when the slugs, caterpillars, 
NATTERJACK.—(Bufo calamita.) 
earwigs, and other creatures are abroad on their destructive mission. Many 
of the market gardeners are so well aware of the extreme value of the Toad’s 
services, that they purchase Toads at a certain sum per dozen, and turn them 
out in their grounds, 
Last year, my children had several large Toads which were quite tame. 
‘They used to carry the Toads in their hands round the garden, and then hold 
them up to flowers on which insects had settled. The Toads were quite 
accustomed to this mode of feeding, and always caught the insects. 
Entomologists sometimes make a curious use of the Toad. Going into 
the fields soon after daybreak, they catch all the Toads they can find, kill 
them, and turn the contents of their stomachs into water. On examining the 
mass of insects that are found in the stomach, and which are floated apart in 
the water, there are almost always some specimens of valuable insects, gene- 
rally beetles, which, from their nocturnal habits, small dimensions, and 
sober colouring, cannot readily be detected by human eyes. 
The Toad will also eat worms, and in swallowing them it finds its fore- 
feet of great use. The worm is seized by the middle, and writhes itself fran- 
tically into such contortions that the Toad would not be able to swallow it but 
