Now it is quite conceivable that complete clutches, with alleged full data, of eggs of the Redstart, Blackcap, Garden Warbler, Golden-crested Wren, Dipper, Kingfisher, Redbreast, Common Sandpiper, Goldfinch, Turtle Dove, Tree Pipit, Chiffchaff, Nuthatch, Green Woodpecker, and Long-tailed Tit, &c, despatched here and there to collectors at a distance, may bring in exchange some rarity not procurable at home. But, to my thinking, a collection of eggs so vicariously amassed, and by means of pillage so eminently unscrupulous, is shorn of attractiveness and merit in no inconsiderable degree; while for a scattered army of boys, naturally reluctant from the very nature of their bargain to exercise the slightest discrimination, to be notoriously holding what may be appositely defined as oological briefs for an individual whose daily avocation is of a strictly professional nature, surely constitutes—in face of modern, and, at all events, well-meant legislation for wild birds and their eggs, and the fact that private enterprise is now doing excellent work in the same interests throughout the length and breadth of the country—a reflection on the neighbourhood. There can be few—very few—who have sympathy with the greed that prompts an organized spoliation of the nests and eggs of our wayside and woodland minstrels.—H.S. Davenport (Melton Mowbray).
AMPHIBIA.
Toad attacked by a Frog.—A number of notes have recently been published in the 'Field' describing "cannibalism" among Snakes; it may be useful to state that the practice is not unknown among Batrachians. When in the Transvaal I found that the electric lights of Pretoria not only attracted insects, but were regularly visited by Batrachians, who enjoyed the banquet of falling insects after impact with the light above. On one occasion my son, at one of these zoological rendezvous—and we must not forget the Bats that constantly hunt above— found a Toad (Bufo regularis) half-swallowed, head first, by a large Frog (Rana adspersa). He brought me the two specimens still in that condition, and they are now in my collection, though the Frog naturally disgorged the Toad on immersion in spirit.
The subject of "Enemies of the Toad" received some attention in the pages of 'The Zoologist' for 1897 (pp. 339, 369, and 432). We have now added the Frog as above, and fish also must be enumerated among the numerous animals that attack this unsavoury creature. Live Toads are stated to be the best bait for Cat-fish (' Audubon and his Journals,' vol. ii. p. 210); whilst Mr. Hudson once examined a good-sized fish (bagras) which had evidently died shortly after swallowing a large Toad ('The Naturalist in La Plata,' p. 78).—Ed.
