Singing Toads. 
323 
more pestilent the poyson is in hir bowelles ” (p f 326). 
Many quotations might be given from early writers setting 
forth the medicinal qualities of the toad-stone. When 
set in a ring, it was a sure preservative of the wearer 
against poison. Fenton, writing in 1569, says, “ There is 
to be found in the heads of old and great toads a stone 
they call borax or stelon, which being used as rings gives 
forwarning against venom.” In these “good old times ” 
the study of chemistry seems to have been chiefly pursued 
with the object of gaining possession of the deadliest 
weapon in nature’s armory. That this knowledge was 
practical as well as theoretical, we gather from the pre¬ 
cautions against poison that were universally adopted, and 
from the anxiety that was felt to secure some unfailing 
antidote. 
The toad so common in English gardens is not found 
in Ireland, but a species of toad, called the Natter Jack, 
is met with in that country. Gonzalo Ferdinando de 
Oviedo, in his history of the West Indies, mentions some 
species of South American toads possessed of considerable 
vocal powers. These toads, he says— 
“sing after three or foure sort, for some of them sing pleasantly, 
other like ours of Spaine, some also whistle, and other some make 
another manner of noise : they are likewise of divers colours, as some 
greene, some russet or gray, and some almost blacke, hut of all sorts 
they are great and filthie, and noious by reason of their great multitude, 
yet are they not venemous, as I have said.” ( Purchas , vol. ii. p. 976.) 
In his quaint treatise on gardening, published 1593, 
Thomas Hyll recommends, on the authority of the Greek 
writer Apuleius, that when the earth is dug preparatory 
to seed sowing, a speckled toad should be first drawn 
round the garden, then put into an earthen pot, buried in 
the centre of the bed and left there until sowing time. 
The toad is then to be dug up and cast a great way off, 
lest the plants growing in the neighbourhood should 
acquire a bitter taste; after this precaution no creeping- 
