FROGS AND TOADS 
137 
are the narrow yellow line along the middle 
of its back and the pale-yellow tint of its 
eyes. 
Unlike the majority of toads the natterjack 
delights in dry situations, and will frequently 
sit out and bask in the sunshine. Only during 
the spawning season does it make its habita¬ 
tion near the water. The creature is said to 
possess the peculiar power of giving forth a 
smell resembling that produced by the smoke 
of gunpowder. 
Although many instances have been reported 
of frogs and toads falling in showers from the 
sky, yet this remarkable phenomenon may 
be likened unto the stories of adders swallow¬ 
ing their young alive, and of toads living for 
ages when buried in a piece of rock, accounts 
of which crop up from time to time, and are 
vouched for by persons who have no wish to 
deceive and are firmly convinced of the truth 
of their statements. Whether such stories 
will eventually die a natural death is difficult 
to say, but at the present time no evidence 
of a sufficiently convincing nature of these 
happenings has been forthcoming to satisfy 
the doubts of the world’s leading natura¬ 
lists. 
Not long ago it was reported in the daily 
Press that millions of tiny frogs were rained 
