Toad, the common name of a well known family of anourous or tailless batrachians, the general character and anatomy of which have been described under Amphibia and Frog. The bufonidoe, which comprise the common toads, have a well developed tongue, jaws rather sharp at the edge but without teeth, thick and heavy body, and skin more or less covered with glandular warts which secrete an acrid fluid; the hind legs are but little longer than the anterior. According to Agassiz, the toads should rank higher than the frogs, from their more terrestrial habits; the embryonic web, which still unites the fingers of the frog, disappears in the toad, and the cutaneous glands of the skin do not exist in frogs. Toads, like frogs, absorb moisture by the skin, which is cast at intervals, coming off in lateral halves which are swallowed by the animal at a gulp; the skin feels hard to the touch, and, according to Mr. Rainey ("Microscopic Journal," 1855), contains a layer of earthy matter under the dermis effervescing with acids, considered by him the analogue of what becomes a continuous hard dermal skeleton in the testudinata.

Like frogs, they have also a large sac resembling a bladder, often found filled with pure water, in no way connected with the kidneys, but formed of the allantois, serving as a reservoir of water and aiding in respiration, its walls being highly vascular. The acrid fluid of the skin may be pressed out from two eminences like split beans just behind the head; it comes forth in a jet, and will make the eyes smart severely if it touches them. The hyoid bone being absent, the root of the tongue is attached anteriorly in the concavity formed by the branches of the lower jaw, the free extremity pointing backward when at rest; it is capable of protrusion in a reversed position so rapidly that the eye cannot follow it. They are not only inoffensive, but of great service to man in destroying noxious insects and larva); they usually lie hid during the day, but come out at dusk in woods, fields, and gardens, in search of food, and are not unfrequently found in cellars and dark places about houses; their metamorphoses are of the same character as those described under Frog; they live out of the water except duririg the breeding season in March or April; during winter they remain torpid in holes and crevices, under stones, stumps, etc.; they lay a great number of eggs united into long strings, enclosed in a gelatinous substance, generally two, which the male draws out with his hind feet.

The species are less numerous than in the terrestrial and tree frogs; they are found in both hemispheres, but unequally distributed, being most abundant in America, and least so in Europe, which has not a single species peculiar to it, both the common toad and the natterjack occurring also in Africa and Asia; they are more abundant in Asia than in Africa, and only one is described in Australia; Dumeril and Bi-bron recognize only 35 species oi'bufonidce. - In the genus bufo (Laur.) the tongue is oblong, free posteriorly; anterior limbs four-toed and free, the posterior five-toed and semi-palmated; the tuberosity behind each eye, above the tympanum, porous and cushion-shaped; head obtuse in front, the upper jaw descending directly downward so that the in-termaxillaries do not project in front of the cranium. The common European toad or paddock (B. vulgaris, Laur.), le crapaud of the French, is 3 to 3½ in. long, of a lurid brownish gray, with reddish brown tubercles and a blackish stripe externally or along the glands on the sides of the head; the iris red or golden; the body thick and much inflated.

It feeds on insects and worms of all kinds, but will touch only a living and a moving prey; it remains motionless, with eyes fixed on its intended victim till it comes within reach of its tongue, which is darted out with extreme rapidity and accuracy; when it seizes a worm, it pushes it into the mouth with the fore feet till all disappears, and the animal is swallowed whole. Its motions are by a kind of crawl; when alarmed it stops and swells out the body, and sometimes makes short and awkward leaps. The eggs are in a double series, 3 or 4 ft. long and two lines thick, and are laid in the spring two or three weeks later than those of the frog, the young being fully developed by the last of summer; they are smaller and blacker in all their stages than the young of the frog. Small toads of this and the common North American species are often found in places, such as gardens arid cellars, where they could neither have had access to water nor have been introduced from without, and therefore could not have gone through the usual stages of tadpole existence; the gills must have disappeared shortly after birth, if they ever existed; they appear to have the power of prematurely assuming the functional conditions of terrestrial animals when circumstances demand it; a similar rapid metamorphosis is observed as a rule in the Surinam toad mentioned below. (See "Annals and Magazine of Natural History," vol. xi., London, 1853.) The toad has been regarded as venomous in almost all countries and ages, its saliva, bite, and cutaneous and watery secretion being supposed to be poisonous and more or less maleficent; the acrid exudation from the skin is sufficient to produce a painful irritation on a tender skin or a wounded mucous membrane; though it will make a dog quickly drop a toad from its mouth, it has no effect when introduced into the circulation; it not only serves thus for the protection of the animal, but is probably partly excrementitious, and assists the lungs in freeing the blood of carbon.

The toad has been known to live 35 or 40 years, and it is thought to attain a considerably greater age; it has been so far domesticated as to come and feed from the hand, and seems capable of attachment to man. From their well known fondness for insects, toads make excellent traps for the entomologist, who may thus procure rare and otherwise unattainable beetles and nocturnal species, which they can be made to disgorge without difficulty; gardeners often put them into hot-houses to destroy ants and other insects and larvae. Like many reptiles, the toad can live a considerable time without food and with a very small supply of air; but the alleged instances of their being found imbedded in solid stone or the heart of a tree, with no possible communication with the external world, have no doubt arisen from errors of observation. Dr. Buckland's experiments in 1825, in connection with the so-called antediluvian toads, show that these animals cannot usually survive a long time, not even a year, deprived of air and food. (See "Curiosities of Natural History," by his son Francis T. Buckland, 1st series, London, 1859, pp. 74-86.) - The other European species is the natterjack, or mephitic or green toad (B. calamita, Laur.); it is less than 3 in. long, of a light yellowish brown color clouded with dull olive, and with a bright yellow stripe along the middle of the back; under parts yellowish with black spots, and the legs with black bands; iris yellowish green; it is less tumid, and the eyes more prominent; the hinds legs are shorter and the toes less palmated, indicating more terrestrial habits; it is less common, more active, and frequents drier places; it is found throughout Europe, and in Asia and N. Africa. - The common American toad (B. America-nus, Le Conte) is 2½ to 3 in. long, with short, thick, and bloated warty body; anterior limbs large, posterior short with a spade-like process at root of first toe, described as a rudimentary sixth toe by some writers; the jaws entire, and the eyes large and brilliant.

It has a longitudinal line of dirty white from the occiput to the vent, on each side several spots of various colors, size, and shape, and a row of black and whitish ones extending to the hind • legs; 'lower parts granulated and dirty yellowish white; anterior limbs dusky above with small white spots, the posterior ashy with blotches and bands of black. The head is smaller than in the European toad, the body less bloated, and the movements more active. In the breeding season toads and frogs do not generally assemble in the same pond; this species has been found on sandy shores overgrown with beach grass and in salt marshes; it is met with from Maine and Canada to the Mississippi valley; its note is a prolonged trill, continued by day and night. - There are several toad-like batrachians, generally arranged by modern herpetologists in the frog family. One of these, the accoucheur toad (B. obstetricans, Laur.; genus alytes, Wagler), is common in the vicinity of Paris, France, and in S. Germany; the males not only assist the females in the exclusion of the eggs (which are yellow), but afterward attach them to their hind legs by small pedicles; the young are developed under ground in the femoral region until they reach the tadpole state, when the males enter the water and the young escape. - The family pipidoe constitute the group of phrynoglosses, so named from having no tongue, as distinguished from the phaneroglosses, in which this organ exists; the head is triangular, and the small eyes are low and near the mouth; the body is broad and thick, the hind legs very powerful and large, and the toes united by a complete and full web.

The family contains only two genera, pipa (Laur.) and dactylethra (Cuv.), each with a single species. In pipa there are no teeth, and the last joint of the slender anterior toes is divided into four parts. In dactylethra the upper jaw has small pointed teeth, the tongue is at the back of the mouth, and some of the hind toes have (alone among batrachians) hoof-like claws; the anterior legs are small and slender; the D. Capensis (Cuv) is found at the Cape of Good Hope and on the Mozambique coast. The Surinam toad (P. Americana, Laur.) has a remarkable and anomalous mode of reproduction; the eggs do not escape into the water, but are received by the male, who deposits them on the back of the female and there impregnates them (some authors say that impregnation takes place before the deposition of the eggs on the back of the female); the skin becomes thickened between them, rises, and partly invests each egg in a sac or pouch, covered by a thin operculum of dried gelatinous matter, probably a portion of that which originally surrounded the egg; the young go through the usual changes in the dorsal pouches, and emerge perfect toads; the yolk is large; the external branchiae disappear at a very early period; the tail is fully formed in the embrvo, but is absorbed before it leaves the egg; the embryo at this stage is larger than the original egg, so that it must have absorbed something from the pouch of the parent.

This animal is commonly found in the dark corners of houses in Guiana, and, though very large and exceedingly disgusting in appearance, is said to be eaten by the natives.

Common European Toad (Bufo vulgaris).

Surinam Toad (Pipa Americana).