Toads, _Bufo_, are squat and disagreeable in shape: it is difficult to comprehend why nature, which has bestowed elegance and a kind of grace upon Frogs and Tree Frogs, has stamped the Toad with so repulsive a form. These much despised beings occupy a large place in the order of nature: they are distributed with profusion, but one cannot say exactly to what end; their movements are heavy and sluggish. In colour they are usually of a livid grey, spotted with brown and yellow, and disfigured by a number of pustules or warts. A thick and hard skin covers a flat back; its large belly always appears to be swollen; the head a little broader than the rest of its body; the mouth and the eyes are large and prominent. It lives chiefly at the bottom of ditches, especially those where stagnant and corrupt water has lain a long time. It is found in dung heaps, caves, and in dark and damp parts of woods. One has often been disagreeably surprised on raising some great stone to discover a Toad cowering against the earth, frightful to see, but timorous, seeking to avoid the notice of strangers. It is in these different obscure and sometimes foetid places of refuge that the Toad shuts itself up during the day; going out in the evening, when our common species moves by slight hops; whilst another, the Natterjack Toad, _Bufo calamita_, only crawls, though somewhat fastly. When seized, it voids into the hand a quantity of limpid water imbibed through the pores of its skin; but if more irritated, a milky and Venemous humour issues from the glands of its back. [Illustration: Fig. 7.--The Common Toad (_Bufo vulgaris_).] One peculiarity of its structure offers a defence from outward attacks. Its very extensible skin adheres feebly to the muscles, and at the will of the animal a large quantity of air enters between this integument and the flesh, which distends the body, and fills the vacant space with an elastic bed of gas, by means of which it is less sensible to blows. Toads feed upon insects, worms, and small mollusks. In fine evenings, at certain seasons especially, they may be heard uttering a plaintive monotonous sound. They assemble in ponds, or even in simple puddles of water, where they breed and deposit their eggs. When hatched, the young Toads go through the same metamorphosis as do the tadpoles of the Frogs. Their simple lives, though very inactive, are nevertheless very enduring; they respire little, are susceptible of hibernation, and can remain for a considerable time shut up in a very confined place.