Page:British Reptiles, Amphibians, and Fresh-water Fishes.djvu/60

BRITISH AMPHIBIANS Frog, and is often found in dry situations. It delights to hide under a rock, stone, or outhouse, and a quarry is a very favourite retreat. It makes its way to its spawning ground later than Rana temporia, and the Cuckoo and Nightingale have usually arrived from overseas ere Bufo vulgaris repairs to its favourite breeding haunt. The eggs, as has already been mentioned in the introductory notes, are laid in strings, not in closely packed masses as with the Frog, and there is a double row of the dark eggs enclosed within the jelly-like substance. The metamorphosis resembles that of the Frog, and need not be repeated. The same remark applies to the food. Toads, unlike Frogs, do not possess any teeth. They have stumpier and heavier limbs, placed further forward than in the more active amphibians last described. As a matter of fact, Bufo vulgaris has cumbersome powers of locomotion, and often loses its equihbrium when negotiating rough ground. Being less adapted for quick movement, cover is taken whenever necessity demands, but the Toad does not appear to have many natural enemies, and is fairly immune from attack.

Although the Toad is dirty looking, it is not, in reality, an unclean creature as it changes its attire every few weeks, and even has a use for this, as it swallows it out of the way. The colour does not vary to any appreciable extent, some shade of brown predominating above, with whitish beneath. The presence of warts on the skin at once distinguishes it from a Frog, but in spite of this, confusion is still rife. It attains a length of about 44