NOTES AND QUERIES. 323 
Now it is quite conceivable that complete clutches, with alleged full data, of 
eggs of the Redstart, Blackcap, Garden Warbler, Golden-crested Wren, 
Dipper, Kingfisher, Redbreast, Common Sandpiper, Goldfinch, Turtle 
Dove, Tree Pipit, Chiffchaff, Nuthatch, Green Woodpecker, and Long- 
tailed Tit, &c., despatched here and there to collectors at a distance, may 
bring in exchange some rarity not procurable at home. But, to my 
thinking, a collection of eggs so vicariously amassed, and by means of 
pillage so eminently unscrupulous, is shorn of attractiveness aud merit in 
no inconsiderable degree ; while for a scattered army of boys, naturally 
reluctant from the very nature of their bargain to exercise the slightest 
discrimination, to be notoriously holding what may be appositely defined as 
oological briefs for an individual whose daily avocation is of a strictly pro- » 
fessional nature, surely constitutes—in face of modern, and, at all events, 
well-meant legislation for wild birds and their eggs, and the fact that 
private enterprise is now doing excellent work in the same interests 
throughout the length and breadth of the country—a reflection on the 
neighbourhood. There can be few—very few—who have sympathy with 
the greed that prompts an organized spoliation of the nests and eggs of our 
wayside and woodland minstrels—H. 8. Davenport (Melton Mowbray). 
AM Pa Pe. 
Toad attacked by a Frog.—A number of notes have recently been 
published in the ‘ Field’ describing “cannibalism” among Snakes ; it may 
be useful to state that the practice is not unknown among Batrachians. 
When in the Transvaal I found that the electric lights of Pretoria not only 
attracted insects, but were regularly visited by Batrachians, who enjoyed the 
banquet of falling insects after impact with the light above. On one 
occasion my son, at one of these zoological rendezvous—and we must not 
forget the Bats that constantly hunt above—found a Toad (Bufo regularis) 
half-swallowed, head first, by a large Frog (Rana adspersa). He brought 
me the two specimens still in that condition, and they are now in my 
collection, though the Frog naturally disgorged the Toad on immersion 
in spirit. 
The subject of “‘ Enemies of the Toad” received some attention in the 
pages of ‘ The Zoologist’ for 1897 (pp. 339, 369, and 432). We have now 
added the Frog as above, and fish also must be enumerated among the 
numerous animals that attack this unsavoury creature. Live Toads are 
stated to be the best bait for Cat-fish (‘ Audubon and his Journals,’ vol. i. 
p- 210); whilst Mr. Hudson once examined a good-sized fish (bagras) 
which had evidently died shortly after swallowing a large Toad (‘'The 
Naturalist in La Plata,’ p. 78).—Ep. 
y 2 
