There are some very big kinds of tadpoles, which are the young of toads of other kinds than our British species. In England we have only two kinds of frogs—the common frog and the edible frog—and two kinds of toads, the common toad and the natter-jack or crawling toad (distinguished by the pale line along the middle of his back). But on the Continent of Europe there are others besides those which we have. There is the beautiful little green tree-frog, and there are the fire-bellied toad, and the obstetric toad (the male of which carries the eggs after they are laid, coiled in a string around his hind legs); and then there is the little spur-heeled toad (_Pelobates fuscus_), which smells like garlic, and is remarkable for having a broad, horny claw on his heel. This toad is only about two inches and a half long (measured from snout to vent) when full grown, but its tadpole often exceeds four inches in length, and in rare cases attains the gigantic size of seven inches, so that it actually shrinks in size when it ceases to be a tadpole, and takes on the adult form. Many years ago I found some of these huge tadpoles in a pond near Antwerp, and thought they must be a realisation of Dr. Edwards’ experiment. They were enormous, and it was only on bringing them home that I heard for the first time of the spur-heeled toad and its gigantic tadpoles (Fig. 44 C). [Illustration: FIG. 44.—Outline drawings of three European tadpoles of the actual size of nature. A, a full-sized tadpole of the Common Frog, _Rana temporaria_, one inch and three-tenths long. B, a fair-sized tadpole of the Obstetric Toad, _Alytes obstetricans_, common near Paris, two inches and four-fifths long. C, a tadpole of the Garlic Toad, _Pelobates fuscus_, common in France, Belgium, and Germany, four inches and a half long. Specimens of as much as seven inches in length have been captured.]