CHAP. VIII] TOADS—ADDERS. 75 
seat or form under a loose stone, or at the foot of a fruit-tree or 
box-edging. There are several habitués of this species in my 
garden, whom I aiways see in their respective places during the 
middle of the day. In the evening they issue out in search of 
their prey. I found a toad one day caught by the leg in a horse- 
hair snare which had been placed for birds. The animal, not- 
withstanding the usual placid and phlegmatic demeanour of its 
race, seemed to be in a perfect fury, struggling and scratching 
at everything within his reach, apparently much more in anger 
than fear. Like many other individuals of quiet exterior, toads 
are liable to great fits of passion and anger, as is seen in the 
pools during April, when five or six will contend for the good 
graces of their sultanas with a fury and pertinacity that is quite 
wonderful, fighting and struggling for hours together. And 
where a road intervenes between two ditches, I have seen the 
battle carried on even in the dry dust, till the rival toads, in 
spite of their natural aquatic propensities, became perfectly dry 
and covered with sand, and in this powdered state will they con- 
tinue fighting, regardless of the heat, which shrivels up their 
skin, or of passers by, who may tread on them and maim them, 
but cannot stop their fighting. There is more character and 
energy ina toad than is supposed. After the young ones have 
acquired their perfect shape, they appear to leave the water, and 
frequently the roads and paths are so covered with minute but 
well-formed toadlings, that it is impossible to put your foot down 
without crushing some of them. 
In some of the drier banks and hills in this country, there 
are numerous adders; like most other snakes, however, they 
never willingly fly at people, only biting when trod upon or 
taken hold of. I have had my dogs occasionally, but rarely, 
bitten by adders. The swelling is very severe, and only reduced 
after several hours’ rubbing with oil and laudanum. A retriever 
of mine, having been bit by an adder, conceived the most deadly 
hatred against them ever after, and killed a great number of them 
without being again bit; his method was to snap quickly at the 
adder, biting it in two almost instantaneously, and before the 
reptile could retaliate. A favourite amusement of this dog, when 
he was in Sussex with me some time afterwards, used to be 
hunting the hedgerows for snakes and adders. He made a most 
