Ad Pi BA EON D TG 329 
** males* to one female, twelve or 
fourteen of whom I have feen cling- 
ing round a female: I have often 
difengaged her, and put her into a 
** folitary male, to fee with what eager- 
“* nefs he would feize her. They im- 
** pregnate the {pawn as it is drawn 
** ** out in long ftrings, like a neck- 
‘*) Jace, 
i<4 
6¢ 
a 
‘ 
* Mr. Yobn Hunter has affuted me that during his refidence 
at Bellei/le, he diffected fome hundreds of toads,. yet never met 
with a fingle female among them. 
** T was incredulous as to the ob/ferrical offices of the male toad, 
but fince the end is fo well accounted for, and the fact eftablified 
by fuch good authority, belief muft take place. 
Mr. Demours, in the Memoirs of the French Academy, as 
tranflated by Dr. Templeman, vol, I. 371. has been very particular 
in refpeé&t to the male toad, as atting the part of an Accoucheur 5 
his account is curious, and clames a place here : 
«© In the evening of one of the long days in fummer, Mr, 
‘© Demours being in the king’s garden perceived two toads sow- 
“© pled together at the edge of an hole, which was formed in part 
‘© by a great ftone at the top. 
“< Curiofity drew him to fee what was the occafion of the mo- 
tions he obferved, when two facts equally new furprized him ; 
<¢ the firff was the extreme difficulty the female had in laying 
<¢ her eggs, infomuch that fhe did not feem capable of being 
** delivered of them without fome afliftance. The /econd was, 
‘¢ that the male was mounted on the back of the female, and 
‘* exerted ali his ftrength with his hinder feet in pulling out the 
‘¢ egos, whilft his fore-feet embraced her breatt. 
‘* In order to apprehend the manner of his working in the 
delivery of the female, the reader muft obferve that the paws 
** of thefe animals, as well thofe of the fore-feet as of the hin- 
der, are divided into feveral toes, which can perform the 
‘* office of fingers, any 
‘¢ Tt muft be remarked likewife, that the eggsof this {pecies 
of toads are included each in a membranous coat that is very 
firm, in which is contained the embryo; and that thefe eggs, 
which are oblong and about two lines in length, being faften- 
ed one to another by a fhort but very ftrong cord form a kind 
** ef chaplet, the beads of which are diftant from each other 
ie Y2 s© about ° 
ae 
