Fischer-Sigwart[80] found the time of development as follows:–The {176}eggs were laid on the 6th of March; the larvae left the jelly on the 16th, being 4 mm. long. On the 2nd of April they measured 13 mm.; on the 25th, 20 mm. On the 7th of May the hind-limbs appeared. On the 18th of May the tadpoles had reached their greatest length, namely 24 mm., and this is a rather small size for so large a species. The fore-limbs broke through on the 28th, and the metamorphosis was completed eighty-five days after the eggs were laid, the creatures leaving the water on the 30th of May. The tadpoles showed a preference for rotten pieces of _Agaricus_, which were floating in the water. The little baby-toads are surprisingly small, scarcely 15 mm. long, and live in the grass, under stones, in cracks of the ground, and hop about in much better style than their heavier and more clumsy-looking parents. Where many broods have been hatched they can be met with in myriads, the ground literally swarming with them, and as they are naturally stirred up by a sudden warm rain, perhaps after a drought, people will occasionally state it as an observed and well-ascertained fact that "it has rained toads." What becomes of all these hopeful little creatures? Although it takes them fully five years to reach maturity, one would expect that the whole country would be swarming with toads; but since this is not the case, there being not more toads now than there were before, it follows that their enormous fecundity is only just sufficient to keep the race going. Adult toads seem to have scarcely any enemies except the Grass Snake, which takes them in default of anything better. But how about the reduction where there are no snakes? We know nothing about epidemics which might carry them off, but elderly toads are liable to a horrible disease produced by various kinds of flies, notably by _Lucilia bufonivora_ and _Calliphora silvatica_, the maggots of which somehow or other eat their way from the nostrils into the brain and into the eyes. Those which reach the brain at first produce effects similar to those of _Coenurus cerebralis_, the hydatid or bladder-worm of sheep. The toad inclines its head towards one side, and cannot crawl straight, but walks in a circle. By eating away the brain they gradually destroy the host's life. But if none enter the brain, and a few only find their way into the eye, they only impair or destroy its sight. Such toads show signs of pain, poking at or stroking the affected eye, which becomes {177}inflamed, and ultimately remains enlarged, with the iris partially or entirely destroyed by the maggot, which does not develop further, but dies in the eye-chamber, this being really an unsuitable place for it. The eyesight is of course affected, and is mostly, but not in all cases, lost. Such half-blind individuals–the disease affecting sometimes one eye only–recover their health, and except for a little awkwardness, behave like normal specimens.