NOTES AND QUERIES. 233 



AMPHIBIA. 

 Destruction of Toads. — I was very interested in the communi- 

 cation of the Eev. H; Marmaduke Langdale on the subject of Eats 

 eating Toads, which appeared in ' The Zoologist ' (ante, p. 159). 

 Whilst out quietly prospecting for snakes in some swampy ground 

 at Welsh St. Donats, Glamorganshire, I observed the rushes swaying 

 about, indicating a disturbance at their base. On remaining quiet 

 for a few moments I saw a fawn-coloured Eat (Mus decwnanus), 

 about one-third grown, which appeared to be jumping about upon a 

 lump of peaty earth. Approaching within six feet I saw the appa- 

 rently inanimate peat rise and walk ; it was a full-grown toad. 

 Taking out my watch, I waited to see what was going on. The 

 rat ran round the toad several times, and, coming up behind it on 

 the left side, began biting into it slightly to the left of the back- 

 bone. Placing its fore paws on the toad, it reached forward to the 

 neck, and, taking the skin in its incisors, tore it back, strip after 

 strip, leaving these shreds hanging about the abdominal region ; 

 having cleared the ground, so to speak, of the noxious derm, the rat 

 continued eating. Several times the toad had walked or clambered 

 forward a few inches ; the rat, with its fore paws on its living meat, 

 hopped along with it. Six minutes had elapsed since I took out my 

 watch, and thinking it best to end this gruesome feeding, I (now only 

 four feet away) brought down the bamboo I was carrying, aiming at 

 the rat ; however, the latter leapt adroitly aside and fled. I dispatched 

 the toad, which was alive and showed no concern at the hole in its 

 back. Incidentally, during the previous part of the proceedings, a 

 shrew — looked more like a water-shrew than the common species — 

 was running around the chief actors and up the stems of aquatic 

 plants, apparently agitated or interested in what was happening. 

 This took place in the afternoon of May 13th. On Feb. 8th I put 

 up a Magpie within a stone's throw of the same spot. This rascal 

 was busy disembowelling a very large toad. On reaching the latter 

 I found a hole in its side large enough to insert a thumb for an inch 

 or slightly more ; the viscera of the amphibian was lying in the sun- 

 shine by its side. The toad blinked and squatted down, seemingly 

 indifferent or stupefied ; I cannot say which. Just before spawning 

 takes place I have found scores of female toads disembowelled lying 

 near the water's edge. I have often observed the Carrion-Crows 

 pecking about, though every endeavour to approach near enough to 

 see at what they peck has been thwarted by the wily birds. The 

 keeper states definitely, though on what grounds I know not, that 

 the crows open up the toads to get at the spawn. 



Zool. 4th ser. vol. XVII., June, 1913. T 



