The American Toad 



During these years they make their home in field and garden and 

 have for their main interest in life the capture of their insect food. 



Toads live to be very old. Authentic record gives the story 

 of one that lived to be thirty-six years of age and then was killed 

 by accident. However, there is much fable connected with the 

 stories of their being found imbedded in rocks and trees. It is 

 certain that other conditions being right, the toad can live for 

 some time without food. This time may be stretched into 

 months or possibly into years if the temperature is continually 

 such that the toad is kept in a hibernating state. 1 



The rapidly growing toad sheds its outer horny skin every 

 few weeks to take care of the increase of size within; the older 

 toads moult at least four times a year. The skin is shed in one 

 piece (Fig. 43) and is swallowed. The process is not often seen, 

 except by one who has toads under special observation, for it 

 requires but five minutes or even less time, and is not preceded by 

 any peculiarities of behaviour. When the toad is about to shed 

 his skin, he takes a position with his back greatly humped, his 

 head bent downward, and his feet drawn under him. The outer 

 skin over the whole external surface of the toad becomes naturally 

 free or loose from the skin underneath, and splits of itself along 

 certain definite lines; namely, along the midline of the head and 

 back, across the posterior end of the body, along the midline of the 

 under side of the body, and across the breast from arm to arm. (See 

 Fig. 43.) The splitting is difficult to see, because the skin is thin 

 and dark in colour, like the new skin, which is exposed by the split- 

 ting. In fact, the whole process of the moult is difficult to see, not 

 only because the old skin is thin and dark, but also because 

 throughout the operation the old skin adheres closely to the wet 

 surface gradually exposed. To understand the moulting, it is 

 necessary to know that the skin of the head is continuous^over the 

 lips with the skin of the mouth, and that the skin that covers the 

 lips is also shed. 



After the skin has split along the lines described, the toad 

 begins a process by which the loosened skin is drawn into the 

 corners of the mouth. In fact, throughout the moulting it is the 

 mouth that does the work of getting off the skin. The process 



1 Careful experiments have been made by Buckland to test the matter. Toads were confined 

 in boxes of limestone and of sandstone and were buried three feet deep in a garden. At the end of 

 thirteen months when the sandstone boxes were opened, the toads were dead; those in the limestone 

 died before the end of two years. 



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