Notes on the Natural History of the Natterjack. 125 



occasion, a large number of these creatures had formed them- 

 selves into a mass, as is sometimes the case with the common 

 frog; and again a considerable number were collected in a 

 small pool of fresh water high on the cliff, with spawn near 

 them. This last was the only instance I know of the kind, but 

 there was no pool in the rocks bordering the sea, within 

 a great distance of the place to which they could have 

 resorted. Among the particular actions which further charac- 

 terize this species of toad, it is to be noticed that all the 

 motions of a company appear to be carried on simul- 

 taneously ; as if there existed an understood agreement 

 between them, or that one pervading impulse was acting on 

 the whole. Thus they are usually, if not invariably known 

 to appear all together, and when they go away, it is in the 

 same manner ; and a curious instance of this occurred to a man 

 of the coast-guard, who has often exerted himself in supplying 

 me with examples of various sorts in Natural History; 

 and who took three individuals of this species from a pool, out 

 of a larger number that were in it, and placed them in a room 

 in a bucket of water, that they might be at hand in the 

 morning; but they made their escape in the night in a way 

 that could uot be explained ; and, on going to the pool again, 

 not one was to be found. This disappearance is the more re- 

 markable, as no example of the Natterjack has been met with 

 at any other than the breeding season through the extent of 

 our coast. That the several stages of the progress of evolution 

 in the ova might be better observed, some of these tadpoles 

 were removed in a glass vessel to my dwelling; but, in the 

 course of repeated visits to the pool, it was noticed that those 

 which had been left to remain in their original situation had 

 made greater progress towards maturity than such as had 

 been removed, although even there I found much difference 

 in the extent of development ; so that it seemed probable that, 

 even at the time of their being produced, some of the grains 

 had been more advanced than others; or, perhaps, although 

 the string was continuous, the length of time that had been 

 required to bring the whole to light had been so considerable 

 as to allow of a preponderating advance in the earliest over 

 that, which followed. 



It might be thought tedious to enter minutely into all the 

 changes which the grains of ova were observed to undergo in 

 their progress to the condition of a perfect animal, but their 

 general appearance is, to some extent, marked in the sketches 

 which accompany this paper. I first noticed the size and 

 appearance of the young which had just become separated 

 from the chain or cord of mucus — an advance which was 

 accomplished in the space of five days from my earliest 



