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EDITORIAL GLEANINGS. 



Enemies of Toads. — " The Eev. H. Marmaduke Langdale writes 

 (April 17th, 1889) : — -' A curious circumstance came under my notice 

 yesterday, which I think may be of interest to you, though it does 

 not touch on bird-life. Toads are particular favourites of mine, 

 and I have always upheld their usefulness and harmlessness, de- 

 ploring the cruelty which often dictates their death. Till yesterday, 

 however, I left out one from the list of their enemies. There is some- 

 thing about a toad which makes all animals shy of touching one with 

 the mouth. Nature has provided the defenceless thing with a bitter 

 juice, which can be expelled, like perspiration, from the pores of the 

 skin, when it is being handled or used roughly. This juice makes 

 dogs foam at the mouth when they can be excited sufficiently to seize 

 a toad, and doubtless the same reason frees them from the persecution 

 which sweeter tasted morsels suffer from the jaws of various vermin. 

 Now, hard by this village (Compton), where some bricklayers are 

 erecting outbuildings, there is a pond in a sequestered valley, sur- 

 rounded with long grass, and shaded by the boughs of mighty elms, 

 which hitherto has afforded a peaceful retreat to toads at this time of 

 year, when they resort thereto and deposit their long bead-like strings 

 of spawn. The building operations upset the programme sadly, how- 

 ever, for the lime imparted to the water from the dipment of mortar- 

 covered buckets drove all the squamous inhabitants into the surround- 

 ing grass. Hard by, a mighty heap of turf affords asylum to a colony 

 of rats, and these gentry sallied out at dead of night, fell upon the 

 evicted toads, and rent them in pieces, eating portions of their flesh 

 and dragging away the carcases to their earthy fortress, the whole 

 community thus coming to a fearful end. This little episode struck 

 me as most unusual, and I made up my mind to ask you if any 

 similar occurrence had ever come under your notice. Rats are truly 

 regarded as omnivorous.' Under stress of hunger any creature will 

 devour any strange flesh, as wolf eats wolf, and it is possible that the 

 rats did not want ' Home Rule ' for themselves so much as to stay 

 the pinch of hunger even with a toad. This letter of Mr. Langdale's, 

 whose powers of observation and humorous description are here well 

 exemplified, would have been welcome to Mr. Frank Buckland, to 

 whom rats were special favourites. He describes the elephant at 



