§ II Batrachian Reptiles
When this reptile issues from the egg it is merely a black, oval mass, with a slender tail. This tadpole, as it is then called, is the embryo of the Frog, and when it has attained a certain size its body gradually acquires the form of that of the Frog, its legs sprout from its sides, and finally its tail is cast off. This metamorphosis is one of the most curious in nature, and deserves our observation. Like other reptiles, it is not necessary for it to breathe in order to put its blood into circulation, as it has a communication between the two ventricles of the heart. It lives during spring in ponds, brooks, muddy ditches, marshy grounds, and other watery places, in summer in corn-fields and pasture land. Its voice proceeds from two bladders, one on each side of the mouth, which it can fill with wind. When it croaks, it puts its head out of the water. The hinder legs of the Frog are much longer than the fore ones, to help it in its repeated and extensive leaps. The whole of the body bears a little resemblance to some of the warm-blooded animals, principally about the thighs and the toes. The Frog is extremely tenacious of life, and often survives the abscission of its head for several hours. It is supposed that Frogs spend the whole winter at the bottom of some stagnant water in a state of torpidity.
There are several species of the Frog; they are all oviparous, and the eggs are gelatinous. The Edible Frog is the species used in France and Germany for food; it is considerably larger than the common kind, and though rare in England, is very plentiful in France, Germany, and Italy. Its colour is olive green, marked with black patches on the back, and on its limbs with transverse bars of the same. From the tip of the nose three distinct stripes of pale yellow extend to the extremity of the body, the middle one slightly depressed, and the lateral ones considerably elevated. The upper parts are of a pale whitish colour, tinged with green, and marked with irregular brown spots. These creatures are brought from the country, thirty or forty thousand at a time, to Vienna, and sold to the great dealers, who have froggeries for them, which are pits four or five feet deep, dug in the ground, the mouth covered with a board, and in severe weather with straw. In the year 1793, there were but three great dealers in Vienna, by whom those persons who brought them to the markets ready for the cook were supplied. Only the legs and thighs are eaten, and these are always skinned. They are rather dear, being considered a great delicacy. The Edible Frogs are caught in various ways, sometimes in the night, by means of nets, into which they are attracted by the light of torches that are carried out for the purpose, and sometimes by hooks, baited with worms, insects, flesh, or even a bit of red cloth. They are exceedingly voracious, and seize everything that moves before them.
Whose very name seems to carry with it something of an opprobrious meaning, is not unworthy the attention of the observer of nature; for, though prejudice and false associations have affixed a stigma on certain species of animals, none of the works of our Creator are despicable, but all, the more minutely they are examined, the greater claim they are found to have to our admiration. Somewhat like the frog in the body, it also resembles that animal in its habits; but the frog leaps, while the Toad crawls. It is an error to suppose the Toad to be a noxious and venomous animal; it is as harmless as the frog, and, like some of the human kind, only labours under the stigma of undeserved calumny. Several stories have been related of its spitting poison, or knowing how to expel the venom it may have received from the spider or any other animals; but these fables have been long exploded. A curious and yet inexplicable phenomenon is that Toads have been said to be found alive in the centre of large blocks of stone, where they must have subsisted without food and respiration for a number of years. The following are recorded examples: In the year 1719, M. Hubert, professor of philosophy at Caen, was witness to a living Toad being taken from the solid trunk of an elm-tree. It was lodged exactly in the centre, and filled the whole of the space that contained it. The tree was in every other respect firm and sound. Dr. Bradley saw a Toad taken from the trunk of a large oak. In the year 1733, a live Toad was discovered by M. Grayburg in a hard and solid block of stone which had been dug up in a quarry in Gothland. On being touched with a stick upon the head, he informs us, it contracted its eyes as if asleep, and when the stick was moved gradually opened them. Its mouth had no aperture, but was closed round with a yellowish skin. On being pressed with the stick on the back, a small quantity of clear water issued from it behind, and it immediately died. A living Toad was found in a block of marble at Chillingham Castle, belonging to Lord Tankerville, near Alnwick, in Northumberland.
Some of these cases are related in a manner which renders it difficult to doubt that the observers described what they thought they saw; but the occurrence of the phenomena, as described, seems to be so utterly impossible that we are forced to suppose that those writers have been misled in some way. That there is some foundation for many of the stories in question we can have no doubt, but we must look forward to further observations for their explanation; as Mr. Bell says: “To believe that a Toad, inclosed within a mass of clay, or other similar substance, shall exist wholly without air or food, for hundreds of years, and at length be liberated alive, and capable of crawling, on the breaking up of the matrix, now become a solid rock, is certainly a demand upon our credulity which few would be ready to answer.”
With regard to the length of life of these animals, it is impossible to state anything decisive, but several facts prove that some of them have been gifted with astonishing longevity.
A correspondent of Mr. Pennant’s supplied him with some curious particulars respecting a domestic Toad, which continued in the same place for thirty-six years. It frequented the steps before the hall-door of a gentleman’s house in Devonshire. By being constantly fed, it was rendered so tame as always to come out of its hole in the evening when a candle was brought, and to look up as if expecting to be carried into the house, where it was frequently fed with insects. An animal of this description being so much noticed and befriended excited the curiosity of all who came to the house, and even females so far conquered the horrors instilled into them by their nurses as generally to request to see it fed. It appeared most partial to flesh-maggots, which were kept for it in bran. It would follow them on the table, and, when within a proper distance, would fix its eyes and remain motionless for a little while, apparently to prepare for the stroke which was to follow, and which was instantaneous. It threw out its tongue to a great distance, and the insect, stuck by the glutinous matter to its tip, was swallowed by a motion quicker than the eye could follow. After having been kept more than thirty-six years it was at length destroyed by a tame raven, which one day seeing it at the mouth of its hole pulled it out, and so wounded it that it died.
Which is one of the ugliest of all Toads, is remarkable for the mode in which the young are developed. The female, like that of the common Toad, deposits her eggs at the edge of the water, but instead of leaving them there, the male takes the mass of eggs and places them on the back of his partner, pressing them down into a number of curious pits, which are produced in that part at the breeding season. When each of the pits has received its egg, the orifice becomes closed by a sort of lid, and the young animal goes through all its changes from the tadpole to the perfect Toad in this rather confined space. This curious Toad is found in Guiana; it frequents the dark corners of the houses, and, notwithstanding its intense ugliness, is eaten by the natives.
Besides the frogs and toads, which have no tails when arrived at their perfect form, there are several Batrachian Reptiles in which this appendage is permanent. The best known of these are the Newts, of which two kinds are very common in ponds during the spring. The common Newt is three or four inches in length, and is of a pale brown colour above, and orange with black spots below. It has four little webbed feet and a flattened tail. In swimming, the legs are turned backwards to lessen resistance, and the animal is propelled principally by the tail. Their progression at the bottom of the water and on land is performed creepingly with their small and weak feet. These animals live during the autumn and winter under stones and clods of earth, and come down to the water in February or March for the purpose of depositing their eggs there. The eggs are carefully inclosed by the parents in the leaves of aquatic plants. The young, when first hatched, are in the form of tadpoles; the legs afterwards sprout from the sides of the body, but the tail is not cast off, as in the frogs. The old Newts remain in the water until July or August.
The Great Newt. (Triton Palustris.)
This, the largest British species of the Newt, is by no means uncommon in our ponds and ditches. It is about six inches in length; its back is dark, and its under side is orange-coloured, sprinkled with small black spots; altogether it is darker and richer in colour than the common species. During the breeding season the males of both species, but especially those of the larger one, are adorned with membranous crests, and their colours become much more vivid. Their tenacity of life is very great; when mutilated, they will reproduce the lost parts, and they may be frozen into a solid lump of ice without losing their vitality. With regard to its habits, this animal is a most voracious creature, and devours unsparingly aquatic insects, and, in fact, any small animal which happens to come in its way. For tadpoles it seems to have a special predilection, and its greediness is such that it has not escaped the charge of cannibalism. These Newts have more than once been taken in the act of devouring individuals of the smaller species, but of such a size that there seems to have been considerable difficulty in swallowing them.