Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1868-07-10

toads. They seem to have numerous little
mouths in their skins, and drink in water
that way; which is very convenient when
they are shut away from all water except
what they can catch in showers. They oc-
casionally shed their ugly skins. They
are said 10 draw the upper portion Off over
the head like a shirt; and then they immo-
diatcly proceed to swallow IL. They are
great economists, and support no cold
clo" men.
They are amphibious, but evidently pro-
fer the land to tho water, except in the
pring; when after lying torpid all win
ter in holes, or under stones or stumps,
they resort TO ponds and streams for the
purpose of laying their eggs. These are
produced in long strings or clusters, on
closed in n gelatnous substance. Their
Young are regular tadpoles when Matched
i'm the water: but when hatched on land,
their tails, if they ever have any, are soon
discontinued. Nature Is very economical
She don't waste eyes on Mammoth Cave
fishes, nor tails and gills on garden-born
toads.
But some varieties OF toads are qucercr
than others. There Is one kind, found in
the vicinity OF Paris, the male of which
seems to me a model of devotion as n hus-
band and father. He waits upon and even
assists the female when she is laying her
eggs then takes them and flstens them,
by small, stem-lillo strings, to his legs and
thighs-decorate himself with them, as an
Indian does with wampum-and, thus
burdened with family cares, he retires to
to the utmost domestic privacy in his hole,
and their remains, keeping the eggs still
and warm, brooding them in a sort of way,
and taking for food whatever Mrs. Toad
chooses to provide. As for her she goes
about at her own pleasure; attends all the
chops" in the neighborhood, and, it may
be, comes home now and then rather late
in the morning, TO hear poor, meek Mr..
Toad ask, with sigh, "My dear, where
have you been?'
When the young arrive at the tadpole stage,
the father who knows the very day, by a
sort of almanac of his own, waddles TO the
nearest piece of water, plunges in, gives a
few energetic kicks, and Launches them all
in life.
But the queerest customer of all is "the
Surinam toad" The male and female OF
this variety also divide their family cares
and labors in very amiable and curious
way. As soon as Mrs. Toad of Surinan
lays her eggs, Mr.. Toad of Surinam takes
them and fastens them with a sort of glu-
tinous matter of his own invention, to the
skin of Mrs. Toad of Surinam, whose skin
being of an accommodating nature, rises
up around each egg, and incloses it in a
sort of sac or pouch, covered on the top by
a thin gelatinous veil. There the eggs re-
main snugly embedded, till they pass
through the usual changes of growth; are
tadpoles awhile, but, having no particular
use for tails, drop them before descending
from the maternal back. When they hor
out of their pouches, and begin life in earn
est, they are regular toads of the rare and
exclusive family peculiar to Surinam and
Guiana.
A prolific female toad of this sort must
present a most grotcsque appearance, when
bearing on her broad back whole nursery
of her offspring, in different stages of de-
velopment; some yet slumbering uncon
sclous in the egg some, scarcely knowing
whether they are tads or toads, peepin1
curiously out of their pouches, like so ma
ny pappooses; some just ready to make
the momentous hop of into the great din
world of some dark court of Surinam.
Another funny thing is, that some natur
alists contend that this toad of Surinan
never lays her eggs at all; but sends then
by some secret passage known only to her
SELF up through her body to her back
that they break out through the skin a sor
of oviiorous irruption. really cannot de
eide matter which learned men differ
about but am inclined to think that the
eggs are laid in the good old way, as l have
related AS to the undisputed fact Of theil
being Matched mother-back, l can only say
| it is the fashion in Surinam.