66 
REPTILIA. 
in the gusty day, rather a subdued sound, much resembling, and mis- 
taken by my companion (I. R. G.) for, the noise of a railway train. 
They were stated by a little boy who lives close by and was observing 
them with us, to have been there for five or six days ; not , he said, on this 
day week. 
Feb. 16, 1851. — The winter, unlike last, has been remarkably mild; 
happening with the same companion to pass the same spot to-day, we re- 
marked the frogs just as described above. 
With respect to the distribution of this species over the islands contigu- 
ous to the Irish coast, it may be mentioned that in 1834 I observed frogs 
in Achil ; but Mr. G. C. Hyndman informs me that they are not found in 
Tory Island nor in the largest of the Copeland Islands. 
In an article on the Common Frog, written in a very pleasing and po- 
pular style by my friend Dr. R. Ball, and published in the Irish Penny 
Journal, Oct. 3, 1840, after stating that “it contributes materially to check 
the increase of slugs and worms,” he says, 
“ I have often vindicated the frog from charges brought against him by gar- 
deners. I have been shown a strawberry, and desired to look at the mischief he 
had done. I have pointed out that the edge where he was accused of biting out 
a piece was not only dry but smaller than the interior of the cavity, and it there- 
fore could not be formed by a bite. I have then shown other strawberries 
with similar wounds, in which small black slugs were feeding, and I have cutup 
the supposed strawberry-devouring frog, slain by the gardener, and shown in his 
stomach, with several earthworms, a number of little black slugs of the species 
alluded to, but not one bit of fruit ; thus proving, I hope, that the cultivator of 
strawberries ought for his own sake to be the protector of frogs.” P. 110. 
The Common Toad, Bufo vulgaris, Laur., 
Though so common in Great Britain, is not found in Ireland. 
I have observed toads to be numerous in Ayrshire ; and in 1832 I was 
told that they frequent Aberarder. 
The Natter-Jack Toad, Bufo Calamita, Laur., 
Is found in several parts of the County of Kerry, where it is believed to 
be indigenous. 
In the 9th volume of the Magazine of Natural History (24 Feb. 1836), 
p. 316, Mr. J. T. Mackay published the following notice of this animal : — 
“I have lately got from Kerry living specimens of the Irish toad, which I 
announced at the meeting of the British Association to have observed at Calna- 
fersy, twelve miles from Killarney, in 1805. It is not the common English 
toad [as announced at the Association meeting. W. T. ], but the natter-jack 
{Bufo Rubetra). * * * It was found by me 30 years ago in the place mentioned, 
where it was known to the peasantry as the black frog ; and it was inquiring for 
them under this name that led to the discovery. Mr. Macgillicuddy, the gen- 
tleman who brought me the living specimens about a month ago, informs me that 
they bury themselves under the dry sand in the winter, and may be sometimes 
seen in summer evenings running about like mice in the houses, which they some- 
times enter.” 
Dr. Ball of Dublin informed me several years ago that he had seen a 
specimen of this toad which was taken at Rosbegh in the year 1836. 
The person who captured it stated that it was one of some hundreds ob- 
served by him in the same locality. Dr. Ball subsequently, at the 
Zoological Gardens, Phoenix Park, turned out sixty of them; but never 
saw one of them afterwards. 
