COMMON TOAD.
Toads are accredited with attaining an age of several hundred years.
One small species of tree-frog is common on the European Continent, its distribution extending to North Africa and eastward throughout Asia north of the Himalaya to Japan. The species is imported into England in considerable numbers, and readily becomes acclimatised in a conservatory. Green above and whitish beneath constitute the prevailing tints of this species, such uniformity being, however, varied by the presence of a darker, often nearly black, light-edged streak, that extends from the snout through the eye and ear along each side of the body, and sends a branch upwards and forwards on the loins. The male of this European species shares with many others of its tribe the possession of a large external vocal sac, which when inflated bulges out from the throat in a spherical form to dimensions little inferior to those of the creature's body. It may be observed of examples of these frogs acclimatised in a conservatory that the falling of heavy rain on the roof is an almost certain incentive to their croakings. By pouring water resonantly from a little height into another vessel, the writer also found that he could produce a frog chorus at command.
The European and other tree-frogs deposit their eggs in the water, some species constructing a symmetrical crater-like nest of mud for the reception of the eggs and tadpoles. Certain kinds, however, never leave the trees, having adapted their requirements to the naturally provided environments. Thus one Brazilian species deposits its eggs in the water almost invariably contained in the central cup of a tree, while another allied frog chooses for the same purpose the moist interstices at the bases of decaying banana leaves. A step further, resulting in complete independence of external water, is arrived at by the Marsupial or Pouched Tree-frog of Central America. In this species the female develops a capacious pouch on her back, which opens backward, and wherein both the eggs—primarily assisted to their position by the male—and tadpoles undergo their characteristic transformations.
Photo by Scholastic Photo. Co.] [Parson's Green.
COMMON TOAD.
The toad is highly appreciated by the horticulturist on account of its utility in destroying insect-pests.
As a contrast to the foregoing exclusively tree-dwelling forms, one very fine species common in Queensland has pronounced social proclivities. He is a fine fellow, with a bright pea-green coat and large, lustrous black eyes, and either with or without your leave invades your bedroom from the adjoining verandah, and makes the lip of your water-jug his headquarters. Here he will "lie low" the livelong day. With the approach of night, however, this lethargy is thrown aside, and he hops forth, making excursions through every room in search of black-beetles, spiders, moths, or other acceptable quarry. In this vermin-destroying capacity he is a welcome guest to all except perhaps the ultra-squeamish housekeeper, his occasional offence of an upset glass or cup during his excited chase of the wily cockroach being readily condoned. He has a playful habit too, during his midnight wanderings, of climbing up walls and ceilings, to which he readily clings with his adhesive toes, and mayhap drops down on the recumbent form of some peaceful sleeper, who, if a stranger, possibly wakes with an alarming apprehension of snakes or other uncanny intruders. When once this Queensland Green Frog has determined upon his camping-ground, he clings to it with remarkable pertinacity. You may deport him time after time, and even carry him half a day's journey into the wilderness, but he turns up again the next morning or the following one.
Toads are distinguished from frogs by their sluggish creeping movements and by their non-possession of teeth. There are over eighty species, having collectively an almost cosmopolitan range, though they are not found in Australia, New Guinea, Madagascar, or the Pacific Islands. The common British species enjoys a wide distribution, being found throughout Europe, Asia excepting India, and North-west Africa. Its somewhat clumsy, brown, wrinkled, and warted body, with darker spots and markings on the upper-surface and white-speckled under-surface, will be familiar to every reader. With many it is an unwarranted object of aversion, and in country districts is not infrequently accredited with venomous properties. Toad-spawn is plentiful in ponds and ditches in the early spring, and may be distinguished from that of the frog by the fact of its being deposited in chain-like strings, the eggs being arranged in a double alternating row, instead of in irregular masses, as obtains with the last-named species. The individual eggs are, moreover, smaller, and deposited two or three weeks later in the season than those of the frog. A second and somewhat rarer British toad is known as the Natterjack. It may be distinguished from the ordinary species by the shorter hind limbs, the more prominent eyes, and the conspicuous yellow line down the middle of its back. It is also somewhat more active than the common species.