Chap. IX.] 



BATRACHIANS. 



319 



In the shrubberies around my house at Colombo the 

 graceful little tree-frogs 1 were to be found in great 

 numbers, sheltered under broad leaves to protect them 

 from the scorching sun ; — some of them utter a sharp 

 metallic sound at night, similar to that produced by- 

 smacking the lips. 



In the gardens and grounds toads 2 crouch in the 

 shade, and pursue the flies and minute coleoptera. In 

 Ceylon, as in Europe, these creatures suffer from the bad 

 renown of injecting a poison into the wound inflicted 

 by their bite. 3 The main calumny is confuted by the 

 fact that no toad has yet been discovered furnished with 

 any teeth whatsoever; but the obnoxious repute still 

 attaches to the milky exudation sometimes perceptible 

 from glands situated on either side behind the head; 

 nevertheless experiments have shown, that though acrid, 

 the secretions of the toad are incapable of exciting more 

 than a slight erythema on the most delicate skins. The 

 smell is, however, fetid and offensive, and hence toads 

 are less exposed to the attacks of carnivorous animals 

 and of birds than frogs, in which such glands do not exist. 



In the class of Eeptiles, those only are included in 

 the order of Batrachians which undergo a metamor- 

 phosis before attaining maturity ; and as they offer the 

 only example amongst Vertebrate animals of this mar- 

 vellous transformation, they are justly considered as the 

 lowest in the scale, with the exception of fishes, which 

 remain during life in that stage of development which 

 is only the commencement of existence to a frog. 



1 Polypedates maculatus, Gray. of " King Asoka attempted to de- 



2 Bufo melanostictus, Schneid. stroy the great bo-tree (at Ma- 



3 In Ceylon this error is as old as gadha) with the 'poisoned fang of 

 the third century, b. c, when, as a toad" — Ch. xx. p. 122. 



the Mahawanso tells us, the wife 



