THE ZOOLOGIST 



No. 693.— March, 1899. 



OBSERVATIONS ON THE COMMON TOAD 

 (BUFO VULGARIS). 



By G. T. Rope. 



Hybernation. — Toads generally prefer a dry retreat in which 

 to pass the winter. I have several times at that season found 

 them buried in the dry soil at the top of a bank, under a thick 

 thorn hedge. During the summer the shallow tunnels made by 

 the Mole are often appropriated by these batrachians as diurnal 

 retreats, and it seems not improbable that those holes which 

 penetrate farther into the earth may sometimes be utilized as 

 winter habitations. In like manner the burrows of our smaller 

 rodents, those of the Bank Vole in particular, which run for a 

 part of their course in a horizontal direction just beneath the 

 surface-soil, are often tenanted by Toads ; and one of these 

 creatures may often be seen comfortably seated within, with its 

 head towards the entrance. 



In East Suffolk the period of hybernation appears to begin 

 about the latter end of October, though an occasional individual 

 may be seen moving about later. In the year 1892, near Stalham, 

 in East Norfolk, I observed a full-grown Toad abroad on the 

 25th of October; and in 1888 a male was noticed hopping about 

 here* as late as the 29th of that month. As is the case with our 

 Common Frog (Rana temporaria), the young remain active and 

 lively up to a much later period than the adults, and hybernation 



* Blaxhall, Suffolk. 

 Zool. 4th ser. vol. 111., March, 1899. h 



