A number of large Spanish and Portuguese specimens in my greenhouse were at first very shy, and tried every possible means of escape or sullen hiding, but gradually they condescended to take food when lifted on to the slate-covered stage upon which their food was spread. After a few weeks they had learned this so thoroughly that, towards the usual hour of feeding, they climbed most laboriously on to the slates, lying in wait between the flower-pots, and coming forward when we entered the house. The rest of the day and night they spent on the ground, under stones or plants, each in its individual lair. The biggest of all, and several others, became so tame that they took food whilst sitting on the hand, and then they looked up for more. The food must be alive and show movement. Mealworms, snails, beetles and other small creatures are first carefully inspected with bent-down head, and are sometimes followed for a few inches; then comes an audible snap, a flash of the rosy tongue and the prey has disappeared. Large earthworms are nipped up with the jaws and laboriously poked in with the hands, the fingers being so placed as to clean the worm of adherent soil and other impurities. Very large worms are shaken, twisted, pressed against the ground and gulped down with convulsive movements, but not unfrequently the tip-end remains for some minutes sticking out of the tightly shut mouth. Several are taken at one sitting, until the toad is gorged. One of the biggest took full-grown mice, which {173}were not "fascinated by the fiery eyes" but were stalked into a corner and then pounced upon immediately when they moved. The shells of snails can for half a day be felt through the body; they then dissolve or are disgorged. The dung, which is passed in large, long masses, is often full of fine earthy matter, the contents of the earthworm's intestines, and sometimes it contains the chitinous remains of certain beetles which are supposed to be excessively rare. I know of no instance of slugs being eaten. The regular hunting-time begins with the evening and is continued throughout bright nights, the toads crawling and hopping about. They are expert climbers of rocks, and succeed in reaching apparently inaccessible places by shoving themselves up between vertical walls, and taking advantage of any roughnesses for foothold. Every few weeks they shed their skins. Without any preliminary symptoms or loss of appetite or liveliness, the body makes a few twisting motions, the back is now and then curved, and the skin splits down the middle line. Owing to the more forcible contortions of the body it slides down to the right and left of the back, whereupon the toad gets hold of the peeling-off skin with fingers and toes, scraping the head and sides, and conveys the thin, transparent, slightly tinged skin into the mouth, slips out of it backwards and swallows it. The new surface is then quite wet and shiny, but it soon dries and hardens.