Page:British Reptiles, Amphibians, and Fresh-water Fishes.djvu/50

BRITISH AMPHIBIANS the two sexes, and when engaged in mating this distinguishing feature is very apparent. A word should be uttered on behalf of these defenceless creatures. They are quite harmless, indeed are among the most useful animals we possess. They are entirely incapable of inflicting any hurt, and they certainly do not, as is still believed in some country districts, "spit fire." This leads us on to consider a few superstitions, beliefs, and old-time fallacies which are still rife regarding them.

With regard to the statements still made with annoying frequency in the papers as to Frogs and Toads being found embedded in a solid block of stone where, we are gravely informed, they must have been entombed for hundreds, if not thousands, of years, this of course is sheer nonsense, as experiments that have been made prove conclusively that such an event is quite impossible. True that fossil remains of amphibians have been discovered in Britain, including our own two species of Frogs, the Toad, and one of the Newts, but these unwarranted records of hermetically-sealed living creatures being discovered deserves the emphatic denial here given.

Of the making of fables (still received, be it noted, with a modicum of truth) there is no end, and our friend the Toad is associated with several of these. That it has beautiful eyes is undoubted by all those who see beauty in such things, but the famous Bedfordshire Tinker whose travelling anvil I handled the other day, should 34