nation in the spring. During the rest of the year they live in fields 

 and gardens, where they eat many insect pests. The tadpoles me- 

 tamorphose into tiny toads about 5 mm. long in late June or July. 

 Thereafter they live on land. 



Breeding Ildhifs. The male comes out of hibernation about the 

 middle of April and joins his fellows in some temporary pond or 

 shallow bay. There he joins the chorus of nightly trilling — a bird- 

 like song that carries far over the still night air. In a few days the 

 females appear, and the firSt warm night thereafter the toads couple 

 and each female lays two strands of eggs. Each strand is embedded 

 in a clear glassy cylinder of gelatin which turns amber and opaque 

 in a few days. The toads, having laid their eggs in a breeding area 

 a few yards square, wander off to their dry land haunts. The eggs 

 hatch in four or five days, and the tadpoles enter a life of inde- 

 pendence from parental care. 



Food. The adult eats almost anything around the garden that 

 moves and that it can swallow — slugs, worms, crickets, ants, cut- 

 worms and most other insects. Someone has estimated that one 

 toad is worth from five to twenty dollars to a farmer. The tadpole 

 eats algae, meat, dead insects and the debris of the pond bottom. 

 Mealworms are readily accepted by a captive toad. I feed this toad 

 Pablum and minute quantities of scraped beef. 



If it has an abundance of food, a mossy retreat, and a pool in 

 which to refresh itself, a toad will live for years. It tames readily 

 and when tame will stalk a mealworm before an audience. 



Since toads eat a large quantity of mealworms it is best to keep 

 one only over the winter. It will give good returns as a pet without 

 requiring a battery of mealworms to support it. 



Toads brought indoors when they first appear in the spring will 

 lay their eggs in an aquarium, usually within twenty-four hours. 



Fowler's Toad (Bufo foiilcri) 



Fowler's Toad is a somewhat paler and more agile counterpart of 

 the American Toad. In Michigan it is found chiefly along the 

 beaches and in the vicinity of Lake Michigan. 



[71] 



