The common toad is a familiar inhabitant of garden and field. It leaves its hiding-place in the evening to search for insects and grubs. It may be known from a frog by its rough warty skin; from these warty glands it can, when annoyed, emit an acid secretion that makes it distasteful to dogs, cats, foxes, owls, etc. The toad breeds in the spring in some favoured pond. Its spawn is in long strings of jelly-like eggs, from which little black tadpoles emerge. These are eventually transformed into tiny toads which leave the pool for the land. |