THE FROG AS A REPRESENTATIVE VERTEBRATE 17 



the fact that, with few exceptions, they must lay their eggs in 

 water at the annual breeding season. 



Food and Feeding. — The feeding habits of frogs and toads must 

 be observed to be appreciated. A toad in a garden at dusk, or one 



Fig. 9. — Feeding habits of the American toad, showing the sudden protrusion 

 and retraction of tongue in capture of a flying insect and a toad walking around 

 an earthworm preparatory to seizing head first. 

 (From Dickerson, "Frog Book," copyright, 1920, by Doubleday, Page & Co., reprinted 

 by permission.) 



found squatting near a street lamp to which it has been attracted 

 by the insects, will often furnish an amusing as well as an instruc- 

 tive demonstration. 1 Insects flying near the head are snapped into 



^ The popular prejudice against toads is quite unreasonable. They do not 

 produce warts and may be handled with impunity. Certain of their skin 

 glands secrete a fluid which is irritating if brought in contact with the mouth 

 or the eyes but has no effect upon the human skin. This fluid is discharged 

 only when the animal is violently handled or is in grave danger, as when seized 

 by a snake. It is presumably protective. Toads compare with the best of our 

 insect-eating birds in their destruction of garden pests, and they should receive 

 the protection afforded to all harmless and useful animals. In a garden 

 or a field they should be welcome guests and not objects of persecution and de- 

 struction by adults as well as children. They have a marked sense of locality, 

 and individuals appear to return year after year to the same foraging grounds. 



