THE YOUNG NATURALIST. 



195 



hand. Its fore arms are very strong, and being short, the three suckers are 

 necessary for breeding purposes. 



As might be inferred from its warty skin and more terrestrial habits, the 

 cutaneous respiration of the adult toad is less efficient than that of the frog. 

 This animal is always found in places where it can get a sufficiency of moisture 

 and air, which are necessary to its existence. Professor Bell, in his work on 

 " British Reptiles," gives an instance of a toad which attained the ripe old 

 age of 30 years ; truly, a respectable age, which, however, might have been 

 exceeded, for it met its death by misadventure. Yet extraordinary as this 

 age may appear, it is totally eclipsed, if we may credit the assertions of those 

 who have been so fortunate as to find, in breaking a piece of coal, a toad, 

 which had obviously been accidentally entombed, when the vegetation (at 

 once its home and grave) was deposited in the Carboniferous epoch, or those 

 still more fortunate observers who have occasionally found, on breaking a 

 lump of granite, a toad, which subsequently hopped away in quite a lively 

 manner, though the stratum in which it was found had formed the bed of a 

 Silurian ocean hundreds of thousands of years before the Carboniferous 

 period, and millions of ages before our own. Anyone who doubts the accuracy 

 of these statements upon the longevity of the toad, should do like the old 

 lady, who, at the age of 80 years, thought she would replace her deceased 

 parrot, with a young raven. On inquiring from the dealer the age the bird 

 might attain, he said 120 years; she at once decided to buy one, and see 

 for herself whether his statement was in accordance with facts. 



Without attributing deliberate falsehood to those who, in good faith, have 

 recorded these extraordinary occurrences, we must make allowance for the 

 fact (however unreasonable) that the toad is popularly regarded as the em- 

 bodiment of evil, and consequently endowed with supernatural power. Thus 

 the sudden appearance of a toad occasions to almost any one a feeling of 

 alarm and digust, which entirely prevents accurate observation. As a matter 

 of fact, it is absolutely impossible for a toad to exist without food for two 

 years, as the following experiments, made in 1825-6-7, by the then Dr. 

 Buckland, proved. 



Twenty-four toads, of various sizes, were placed in twenty-four cavities ; 

 twelve in a block of compact sandstone, and twelve in a block of Oolitic 

 limestone. The tops of the cavities were carefully grooved, and glass covers 

 luted to them so as to prevent the access of insects. The two blocks were 

 subsequently buried under 3 ft. of earth, and 13 months later both were 

 uncovered ; it was found that all the twelve buried in the sandstone were 

 dead; and, as the bodies were much decomposed, they had evidently been 

 dead several months. Of the twelve buried in the limestone, which was of a 



