Left: Egg chains of American toad 24 hours after being laid. Right: 

 The same chains three days later, showing newly hatched tadpoles 

 After Dickerson. 



month or more afterward, the males can still be heard 

 calling, usually after dark. The purpose of all this noise 

 is to advertise the male's presence to females and to 

 warn other males to keep their distance. Calling males 

 stay about 36 to 60 inches apart; if one male ventures 

 too close to another, he may be driven off by an agres- 

 sive charge. 



The call of this toad is a sustained, musical trill 

 lasting 6 to 30 seconds, one that is not easily forgotten 

 and which may be heard as far away as a quarter mile. 

 The time needed for egg and tadpole development var- 

 ies with temperature and other factors, but small toad- 

 lets become obvious during mid- to late summer. 

 Females reproduce for the first time at three years of 



Leon L Pray 



Note the differences here in warts and blotches between Fowler's 

 toad (top) and the American toad (bottom). 21 



