THE YOUNG NATURALIST. 



127 



its dusky fellow on land. In the water the 

 natterjack, with its clear olive colour, its 

 golden-yellow stripe, and somewhat bright 

 eyes, is really (though I hardly dare say it) 

 a beautiful reptile, but see it in July and 

 August, crouching on a heap of sand, and 

 half-scorched by the blazing sun, and you 

 scarcely know it for the same species. 



In June the natterjack deposits its spawn 

 or ova. The spawn, like that of the common 

 species, consists of very long strings of a 

 clear jelly-like substance, in which are dis- 

 tributed, at intervals, the black, bead-like 

 germs, or eggs. These beautiful strings of 

 ova are sometimes wound round the rushes 

 and water-plants, and sometimes round 

 stones at the bottom of the pool. The 

 female natterjack does not lay less than 

 15,000 eggs, so it has been computed. 



The tadpole of the natterjack, like all 

 other tadpoles, is of gregarious and frolic- 

 some habits. It may be found from June 

 to September. 



In July the young natterjacks are seen. 

 About the second week of that month in 

 1875, I paid a visit to the Berkshire quarry, 

 and found lots of ova-strings unhatched, 

 and thousands of black tadpoles of all sizes. 

 Then, at the edge of the pools, and squatting 

 among the sand and in crevices, were num- 

 bers of little natterjacks about half-an-inch in 

 length. These miniature calamitas were the 

 prettiest little creatures imaginable, with 

 bright black eyes, pearly-grey throats, and 

 the dorsal stripe quite plain and distinct ; 

 they were very active. On leaving the 

 deeper parts of the pool, the little natter- 

 jacks would sit for a time in the shallows, 

 and when once fairly out of the water never 

 seemed to care about entering it again. At 

 various times during the followiug month, 

 I found the tadpole of this toad still numer- 

 ous in the quarry pools, and going through 

 their various transformations, some being 

 true tadpoles, others boasted of hind legs, 

 and others still further advanced possessed 



both fore and hind legs, together with a 

 tail. The individuals possessing the latter 

 appendages I found, were more shapely 

 than the true tadpoles, but did not possess 

 activity. Crouching in crevices and cavities 

 near the pools, during the month, were 

 clusters of little toads, and others were 

 distributed over the heaps of sand. Those 

 which had made their appearance on land 

 the earliest were much the lightest in 

 colour. In September the tadpoles were 

 tolerably numerous, and the little toads 

 were still issuing from the pools. About 

 the second week in October, both tadpoles 

 and toads had disappeared from the quarry, 

 and I failed to find a single specimen of 

 either. 



The young natterjacks on leaving the 

 pools, collect in clusters at the edge of the 

 water and hide under the stones. Youthful 

 natterjacks may be found about their natal 

 haunts the summer and autumn through. 



The adult natterjack is generally seen in 

 pairs dispersed over the sand, and more 

 commonly by night. I have, however, often 

 seen them on the heath in the full blaze of 

 the summer sun ; but a moonlight night is 

 the best time to hunt the natterjack. No 

 less than fifty-seven of these toads were 

 taken one moonlight evening on a heath in 

 Surrey. 



During the day, most of the calamitas are 

 quietly crouching under the clods and 

 stones, and often in company. On one 

 occasion I happened to raise a large flat 

 stone lying on the heath, and to my surprise 

 found seven full-sized natterjacks under 

 it. These were crouching in burrows, 

 horizontally winding under the stone, the 

 burrows being similar in shape to the 

 reptiles themselves. The latter on being 

 disturbed began moving directly. A similar 

 stone lying near, I ventured to raise it also, 

 and was considerably astonished to find 

 seven other natterjacks, but these were 

 very small in comparison to the first 



