202 C. F. CURTIS RILEY 



movements are unobserved, and the eyes may be closed. The 

 attitude assumed by the death-feigning animal is not always as 

 just described. Instead of the legs being drawn up in close 

 contact with the body they may be somewhat extended. A 

 young toad may be made to feign death by being placed on 

 its back in the hand or on the laboratory table, and held in 

 that position for a few seconds. There is considerable variation 

 among different individuals regarding the length of time of the 

 death-feigning response. Some feign death for a few seconds 

 only, while others retain the death-feigning posture for a minute, 

 and occasionally even for a longer time. When young toads are 

 exposed to the beam of light from the projection lantern during 

 the death-feint, the length of the response seems to be some- 

 what shorter, than when the animals are induced to feign death 

 in w 7 eak diffuse daylight. Here again there is much variation, 

 for in some instances it appears to make no difference to the 

 toad as to the intensity of the light to which it is subjected. 

 If the animal is put into the death feint in diffuse daylight and 

 is then exposed to the bright beam of light from the projection 

 lantern, the length of the response is curtailed, in fact the toad 

 at times arouses immediately from the death-feint. A young 

 toad generally arouses from the death-feint rather suddenly. 

 If the animal is on its back, first one leg and then another is 

 extended until the legs are no longer pressed closely against the 

 body. If the eyes are closed while in the death-feint, they are 

 opened sometime during the process of arousing from the re- 

 sponse, while the legs are being extended. Immediately after 

 the eyes have been opened and the legs extended, the toad turns 

 over with the ventral side down. While it is true that the 

 young toad usually arouses from the death-feint rather abruptly, 

 there are individual variations, some animals being more delib- 

 erate in the process than is the case with others. Young toads 

 may be promptly aroused from the death-feint by sudden tact- 

 ual stimuli, as for example, a touch on the body, though this 

 may at times cause a continuance of the response, or by drop- 

 ping them into a jar of water. Dickerson (I.e., pp. 71-72) 

 has observed the death-feigning response in young toads, as 

 indicated by the following quotation : 



"When they are handled they play dead for seconds at a time and 

 finally 'come to life' sticking up their little orange paws in most ridic- 

 ulous fashion before they tumble over and hop away." 



