Belfast Telegraph, Wednesday 4th April 1934
A novel sight can now be seen in the Museum, Stranmillis, Belfast. A number of English toads have been exhibited there in the vivarium, for some months. At this time of year, like frogs, toads deposit their spawn. Leaving the land, they take to water for a time till the spawning has ceased.
Unlike frogs, however, they do not leave their spawn to float in masses on the surface, but attach the smaller darker coloured spawn to stems and leaves of water weeds. These can now be well seen in the aquarium, and are proving a great attraction, especially to young folk.
The common toad does not live in Ireland, but a smaller, much rarer and more local species, called the Natterjack toad, is a native of a very small maritime area in S.W. Kerry along the head of Dingle Bay, near Castlemaine Harbour. It also occurs on a sandhill area near Southport, Lancashire, and some other places, very local, in England and S.W. Scotland. The common toad is known to naturalists as Bufo vulgaris, the Natterjack as B-calamita.
