"PWDRE SER."
273
assume the form in which it is usually found. The facts have-
been recorded in a letter to Nature (Oct. 16, 1926), from which
the following passage may be quoted:
"My father, the Rev. F. Baylis, who has for some years-
visited Dartmoor during the summer and autumn, has both
last year and this found such jelly-like masses lying on the moor.
This year he has forwarded his 'finds' to me for examination,
and I have been able to satisfy myself that they consist of parts
of the viscera of either frogs or toads. In one specimen the
'jelly' was accompanied by portions of both oviducts in a fair
state of preservation, with part of the ovaries, containing the
characteristic black eggs, resembling shot, and with the greater
part of the animal's alimentary canal, to which the urinary
bladder was attached.
"What appears to happen is that the gelatinous secretion of
the glands lining the oviducts, when exposed to moisture,
swells up to such an extent that the oviducts split open longi-
tudinally, and their contents soon assume the appearance of
an amorphous jelly. With advancing decomposition, the jelly
persists for some time, but the tissue from which it originated
may become unrecognizable. I have carefully examined stained
microscopic preparations of the tissue, which was on this occasion
comparatively fresh, and compared them with similar prepara-
tions of the wall of the oviduct of a known frog, supplied by
my colleague, Mr. H. W. Parker. By this means both Mr. Parker
and myself were able to satisfy ourselves completely that the
tissues were of the same kind. From the fact that the stomach,
which evidently belonged to the same animal, contained recog-
nizable remains of a fairly large earthworm, I am inclined to
believe that the animal was a toad rather than a frog.
"The question now arises, how do the viscera of toads or
frogs come to be lying on the ground in such situations? One
specimen came from near the top of a 'tor.' If the animal had
been swallowed by a heron or other bird, and its remains dis-
gorged, it seems probable that these soft parts would have been
digested more rapidly than the muscular and bony portions,
of which there is no trace. I am inclined, therefore, to believe
that some carnivorous creature (such as the weasel, stoat,
badger, crow or buzzard) is in the habit of disembowelling toads 
or frogs, and leaving some of the viscera on the site of the 'kill.'