Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XV.djvu/808

 778 TOAD ish gray, with reddish brown tubercles and a blackish stripe externally or along the glands on the sides of the head ; the iris red or gold- en; the body thick and much inflated. It feeds on insects and worms of all kinds, but will touch only a living and a moving prey ; it remains motionless, with eyes fixed on its intended victim till it conies within reach of its tongue, which is darted out with extreme rapidity and accuracy ; when it seizes a worm, it pushes it into the mouth with the fore feet till all disappears, and the animal is swallowed whole. Its motions are by a kind of crawl ; when alarmed it stops and swells out the body, and sometimes makes short and awkward leaps. The eggs are in a double series, 3 or 4 ft. long and two lines thick, and are laid in the spring two or three weeks later than those of the frog, the young being fully developed by the last of summer ; they are smaller and blacker in all their stages than the young of the frog. Small toads of this and the common North American species are often found in places, such as gardens and cellars, where they could neither have had access to water nor have been intro- duced from without, and therefore could not have gone through the usual stages of tadpole existence ; the gills must have disappeared shortly after birth, if they ever existed ; they appear to have the power of prematurely as- suming the functional conditions of terrestrial animals when circumstances demand it ; a sim- ilar rapid metamorphosis is observed as a rule in the Surinam toad mentioned below. (See "Annals and Magazine of Natural History," vol. xi., London, 1853.) The toad has been regarded as venomous in almost all countries and ages, its saliva, bite, and cutaneous and watery secretion being supposed to be poi- sonous and more or less maleficent ; the acrid exudation from the skin is sufficient to pro- duce a painful irritation on a tender skin or a wounded mucous membrane ; though it will make a dog quickly drop a toad from its mouth, it has no effect when introduced into the circulation; it not only serves thus for the protection of the animal, but is probably partly excrementitious, and assists the lungs in freeing the blood of carbon. The toad has been known to live 35 or 40 years, and it is thought to attain a considerably greater age ; it has been so far domesticated as to come and feed from the hand, and seems capable of at- tachment to man. From their well known fondness for insects, toads make excellent traps for the entomologist, who may thus procure rare and otherwise unattainable beetles and nocturnal species, which they can be made to disgorge without difficulty; gardeners often put them into hot-houses to destroy ants and other insects and larvae. Like many reptiles, the toad can live a considerable time without food and with a very small supply of air ; but the alleged instances of their being found im- bedded in solid stone or the heart of a tree, with no possible communication with the ex- ternal world, have no doubt arisen from errors of observation. Dr. Buckland's experiments in 1825, in connection with the so-called ante- diluvian toads, show that these animals cannot usually survive a long time, not even a year, deprived of air and food. (See "Curiosities of Natural History," by his son Francis T. Buckland, 1st series, London, 1859, pp. 74-86.) The other European species is the natter- jack, or mephitic or green toad (B. calamity Laur.) ; it is less than 3 in. long, of a light yellowish brown color clouded with dull olive, and with a bright yellow stripe along the mid- dle of the back; under parts yellowish with black spots, and the legs with black bands ; iris yellowish green ; it is less tumid, and the eyes more prominent ; the hinds legs are short- er and the toes less palmated, indicating more terrestrial habits ; it is less common, more ac- tive, and frequents drier places; it is found throughout Europe, and in Asia and N. Africa. The common American toad (B. America- nus, Le Conte) is 2 to 3 in. long, with short, thick, and bloated warty body ; anterior limbs large, posterior short with a spade-like pro- cess at root of first toe, described as a rudi- mentary sixth toe by some writers ; the jaws entire, and the eyes large and brilliant. It has a longitudinal line of dirty white from the oc- ciput to the vent, on each side several spots of various colors, size, and shape, and a row of black and whitish ones extending to the hind legs ; lower parts granulated and dirty yellow- ish white; anterior limbs dusky above with small white spots, the posterior ashy with blotches and bands of black. The head is smaller than in the European toad, the body less bloated, and the movements more active. In the breeding season toads and frogs do not generally assemble in the same pond ; this species has been found on sandy shores over- grown with beach grass and in salt marshes ; it is met with from Maine and Canada to the Mississippi valley ; its note is a prolonged trill, continued by day and night. There are several toad-like batrachians, generally arranged by modern herpetologists in the frog family. One of these, the accoucheur toad (B. obstetr leans, Laur. ; genus alytes, "Wagler), is common in the vicinity of Paris, France, and in S. Ger- many; the males not only assist the females in the exclusion of the eggs (which are yellow), but afterward attach them to their hind legs by small pedicles; the young are developed under ground in the femoral region until they reach the tadpole state, when the males enter the water and the young escape. The family pipida constitute the group of pTirynoglosseSy so named from having no tongue, as distin- guished from the phaneroglosses, in which this organ exists ; the head is triangular, and the small eyes are low and near the mouth ; the body is broad and thick, the hind legs very powerful and large, and the toes united by a complete and full w r eb. The family contains only two genera, pipa (Laur.) and dactylethra