Family III. Bufonidæ.
(Toads.)
The Toads are totally without teeth, both in the jaws and in the palate; the body is thick and swollen, and the skin is set with warts or tubercles; behind each eye is a glandular protuberance, studded with pores, from which a milky secretion exudes; the head is large and flat on the top; the hinder limbs are not much longer than the fore, and consequently their powers of leaping are but small. They habitually crawl, and when they jump, it is with little agility, and only to a short distance. In the tadpole state they inhabit the water, and resemble the members of the preceding Families; but after their metamorphosis, they are much less dependent on the presence of that element, rather affecting dry situations. They are for the most part nocturnal in their habits, crawling about in the twilight and darkness in search of insects and slugs, but retiring during the day into holes in the earth, beneath stones, roots of trees, and other obscure retreats.
Some of the foreign Toads are marked by curious peculiarities of structure. One genus has the back armed with a long dorsal shield; another has the muzzle set with beards: some have only four toes on the hind foot; others have on the same foot two large oblong tubercles in addition to the five normal toes.
Geographically the Toads are said to be thus distributed:—Europe possesses four species,
