REPTILES AND AMPHIBIANS IN EPPING FOREST 187
wholly destroyed. It is doubly unfortunate that the plant species which
are most resistant to damage from fire, or which possess the greatest
powers of recuperation, are the birch and the bracken. There remains
one further, but undoubtedly important factor in the population of both
snakes and the Slow-worm. That is the unreasonable persecution they
suffer at the hand of man. With visitors and local population constantly
increasing, so the number of "snakes" killed will rise, and there seems to
be little hope of educating the general public from its present antipathy
towards these reptiles.* With these factors of a natural and unnatural
nature acting against the Adder we suggest that it has probably decreased
in numbers and in distribution over the past decades, and two of us
(G.M. and J.D.) can adduce evidence that it formerly occurred in areas
where we can not now find it, due, we believe, to a combination of these
factors. Despite this suggested reduction in numbers the Adder is con-
siderably more common today than is generally realised.
Turning now to consider the amphibians of the Forest; one of the
most striking facts that have emerged from our survey has been the
relative scarcity of the Frog. According to other authors this animal was
common and widespread, but we have found it to be rare and compari-
tively localised. The contrast is particularly noticeable between the
numbers of the Frog and the Toad, which we found to be more widely
distributed and much more common. It is difficult to suggest why this
remarkable difference should exist, but we consider that it may be
connected with indiscriminate collection of Frogs by dealers and others
(Stubbs mentioned one dealer who, although not from a Forest Pond,
collected eight hundred Frogs one winter). Secondly, we suggest that the
rarity of the Frog is probably connected with the vulnerability of its
spawn to children. The spawn, laid in clumps, invariably in shallow
water, and at "communal" sites in a pond, can be scooped up in a
small net or even in a jar with ease, while Toad spawn, laid in deeper
water and in long threads wound around pond vegetation, is exceedingly
difficult to pick up even in a net. Children also seem to exercise a
conscious preference for Frog spawn as a subject for the aquarium. In
addition, we also noticed that on one occasion, a small cluster of Frog
spawn had been attacked by Palmate Newts, six of which were deep
inside the spawn. Many of the eggs had been eaten by the newts. This
habit has been recorded elsewhere but as the pond in question contained
an appreciable population of these newts it may be assumed that
predation of this type amounts to a significant factor. Toad spawn
is not so exposed to similar attacks as it takes the shape of threads
and not clusters; so far as we are aware newts have not been recorded
attacking Toad spawn. Further, the tendency of the Frog to spawn earlier
than the Toad may result in the spawn being killed by frost. During
the early spring we found two cases of this having happened. We suggest
in conclusion, that a combination of these factors may have reduced
the Frog population to its present low level in the Forest ponds.
*One of us (A.C.W.) found a large Adder which contained nine young,
battered to death in one of the Forest clearings (28 September), and Roy
Gordon found another earlier in the year, also dead but in another area.