On the Reproduction of the Toad and Frog, 185 



Mr J. Higginbottom of Nottingham, who has paid great atten- 

 tion to this subject, has clearly proved the development of the tad- 

 pole to the perfect toad in situations wholly deprived of light, as I 

 have through his kindness several times witnessed. My present re- 

 marks are intended to show that occasionally frogs and toads are 

 reproduced in localities where it would be impossible for the inter- 

 mediate stage of tadpole to have any existence. 



1. Toads deposit spawn in cellars and young toads are after- 

 wards observed. — Last summer several masses of spawn were pro- 

 cured from my cellar, having been found deposited amongst decaying 

 potatoes, &c, and subsequently young toads were noticed. The cellar 

 is free from water, and at a considerable distance from any brook. 



2. Young toads are observed about hot-beds. — In the kitchen- 

 garden at Highfield House (which is entirely walled round) young 

 toads have been noticed about the cucumber and melon beds. The 

 gardeners have been in the habit of bringing toads to these beds to 

 destroy the insects ; these have continued amongst the warm damp 

 straw all summer. It is after these beds have remained three or 

 four months that the young ones have been noticed. Toads would 

 have to travel nearly half a mile to reach this garden from the brook 

 or lake, and also to mount a steep hill, besides taking the opportunity 

 of coming through the door. Toads so small are not seen in any 

 other part of the gardens. 



3. Young toads and frogs observed in abundance at the summit 

 of another hill, whilst quite small. — During the past summer, espe- 

 cially in the month of July, very many young toads and frogs were 

 seen amongst the strawberry plants, apparently from a week to a 

 month old. These might possibly have travelled from the brook a 

 few hundred yards distant ; yet it is strange, that, with the excep- 

 tion of these beds, no young toads could be found elsewhere in the 

 garden. A number of full-grown toads are mostly to be seen about 

 these beds. 



4. Young frogs dug out of the ground in the month of January. 

 — In digging in the garden amongst the strawberry-beds (near 

 where so many toads were observed last summer) in the middle of 

 January in the present year, a nest of about a score young frogs 

 were upturned. These were apparently three or four weeks old. 

 This ground had been previously dug in the month of August and 

 many strawberry plants buried ; it was amongst a mass of these 

 plants in a state of partial decomposition that these young ones were 

 observed. 



5. Young frogs are bred in cellars where there is no water for 

 tadpoles. — In mentioning this subject to Mr Joseph Sidebotham of 

 Manchester (an active botanist), he informed me that young frogs, 

 and in fact frogs of all sizes, were to be seen in his cellar amongst 

 decaying dahlia tubers. The smallest of them were only about half 

 the ordinary size of the young frog when newly developed from the 



