78 
The Nahiralist in La Plata. 
tliat all I have said about my lost frog will some 
day be confirmed by others. Rana luctator would 
be a good name for this species. 
The toad is a slow-moving creature that puts 
itself in the way of persecution ; yet, strange to say, 
the acrid juice it exudes when irritated is a surer 
protection to it than venomous fangs are to the 
deadliest snake. Toads are, in fact, with a very 
few exceptions, only attacked and devoured by 
snakes, by lizards, and by their own venomous 
relative, Oeratophrys ornata. Possibly the cold 
sluggish natures of all these creatures protects them 
against the toad’s secretion, which would be poison 
to most warm-blooded animals, but I am not so 
sure that all fish enjoy a like immunity. I one day 
noticed a good-sized fish (bagras) floating, belly 
upmost, on the water. It had apparently just died, 
and had such a glossy, well-nourished look about it, 
and appeared so full, I was curious to know the 
cause of its death. On opening it I found its 
stomach quite filled with a very large toad it had 
swallowed. The toad looked perfectly fresh, not 
even a faint discoloration of the skin showing that 
the gastric juices had begun to take effect ; the fish, 
in fact, must have died immediately after swallowing 
the toad. The country people in South America 
believe that the milky secretion exuded by the toad 
possesses' wonderful curative properties; it is their 
invariable specific for shingles — a painful, dangerous 
malady common amongst them, and to cure it living 
toads are applied to the inflamed part. I dare say 
learned physicians would laugh at this cure, but 
then, if I mistake not, the learned have in past 
