169 



March 2d she remained several hours in the water, and I have no doubt 

 that she would have deposited her eggs if she had had a mate. At this 

 time her weight was 104.7 g. Her appetite always appeared good, and 

 though I had only meat to give her for two mouths, she usually tooli some 

 whenever it was offered her. She always knew when she had enough 

 meat, in fact was never very eager to take it. But with flies she was 

 gluttonous, became excited and eager, and always had room for one 

 more, as shown by the following day's record. 



I confined a large number of flies in the aquarium with her. When 

 she heard and saw the flies buzzing about she became very much excited 

 and nervous, and immediately began hopping about and catching them. 

 When thus excited, the long toes of the hind feet always had a peculiar 

 twitching, while the remainder of her body would be comparatively mo- 

 tionless. It was interesting to see how rarely she missed her aim and how 

 rapidly she ate them. At first she averaged about four per minute. Be- 

 ing curious to know how many she would eat, I watched and counted. 

 When she had eaten 40 her rate began to slacken, though she was still 

 anxious and would ai)proach nearer when a fly was beyond her reach. 

 At 50 she showed less energy in the chase. When 60 had disappeared she 

 simply waited till they came within reach of her tongue, while about 

 every third or fourth fly swallowed she would squirm and twist as though 

 making room for one more. When she had eaten 76 I was called away. 

 When I returned about an hour later the remaining 15 or 20 flies had dis- 

 appeared. Some of these, however, may have been eaten by two or three 

 small frogs that were confined in the same aquarium. One would think 

 she would not want anything more soon, but the next day she was ready 

 for more, and averaged about 40 flies each day. 



The greatest weight she reached was 111.5 g. on a diet of meat and 

 flies. It was also interesting to note that if, when she had eaten all the 

 meat that she wanted and had begun to back into the ground, a fly with 

 clipped wing was put before her she would quickly take it, or, if it should 

 run out of her reach, would eagerly give chase. 



One day I placed a medium-sized garter snake in the aquarium to see 

 the eflrect. The toad was out and happened to be close to the side of the 

 aquarium. As the snake crawled slowly toward her seeking a means of 

 escape, her sides began to swell out while she slowly turned her broad 

 back toward the snake. This made her resemble a clod of dirt more than 



12— A. OF Science. 



