OUR FRIENDS. 367 



Prizes have been paid iu former times by stupid communities in the old 

 country for every mole caught; men have spent time and money in catching 

 this benefactor of mankind, only to find themselves punished for their igno- 

 rance by being overrun with bugs and beetles, crickets and caterpillars. Never- 

 theless our boys are allowed yet to torment and kill this inoffensive but 

 slandered vermin hunter. But the time will come when his virtues will be 

 recognized, as it has arrived already for 



THE TOAD, 



for which English gardeners pay now with pleasure four shillings apiece, to 

 set them as guards against snails and bugs in their salad beds, after having 

 found out the good services they do. What horrid tales has superstition not 

 told about this harmless Batrachian ? Its bite is poisonous, has been said. 

 Who ever was bitten by a toad? Its jaws have no teeth, no sharp horny edges 

 like the turtle's. "But," says an old wiseacre, who has seen it in a school- 

 book of 1701, "if it can't bite, its saliva ( its urine ), the juice oozing out from 

 the warts on its back, are poisonous." Natural science of to-day denies it. 

 The toad has as little saliva as the frog, hardly enough to keep its tongue 

 moistened, which always is sticky and clammy to glue on it the insects it 

 catches. Its urine is not more acrid than that of the turtle, and the slime 

 oozing out of the warts may cause perhaps a reddening of the skin, but will 

 poison nobody. When the cool evening draws the dark cloak of night over 

 the face of the earth, the toad emerges from his moist resting place and begins 

 to look for snails, flies and bugs. Slowly it creeps forward, and narrow is the 

 region of its hunting grounds, but it goes systematically and thoroughly, 

 knowing the " nest-hiding" places of spider and slug, as a worthy member of 

 the order of St. Hubertus. 



THE SHREW. 



The shrew — but not the shrew tamed by Shakspearc — is an animal of simi- 

 lar temperament as the mole, and does us the same services above ground 

 which the mole does below. The caterpillar, the larva3 and chrysalis of the 

 butterfly, the worm and the centipede have no fiercer enemy than the shrew, 

 which sacrifices young mice by the dozen to the hungry Moloch of its stomach. 

 A kind of musky smell may have caused the bad stories which are told about 

 this little fellow. People say that its bite is injurious to man and beast; but 

 its teeth are not long enough to scratch the skin of a horse, and its touch is 

 barmless. 



THE BAT. 



What mole and shrew accomplish against the larvas, the bat does against the 

 full-grown insect which roams through the air. Evening and night are en- 

 livened by its flight, and there is no need of fear that it may bury itself in the 

 fair locks of the ladies, if by accident it should fly into the parlor attracted by 

 the glaring lamp. Hair, free of insects, will not be invaded by the bat. 



THE HEDGEHOG. 



But particularly the hedgehog, or urchin, ought to be recommended to the 

 protection of our farmers. Having slept through the whole winter, the hedge- 

 hog takes the shady fence corners and cool groves for its abode, where he lies 

 in wait for the wily snake, all kinds of worms, and mainly field mice. If it 

 would not smell so disagreeably and would not make so much noise by his 

 clumsy hunting, it would be preferable to cats as a destroyer of mice. But in 



