Biological Papers. 227 



ones could be found. A little later one of the old ones was ob- 

 served to be crawling about merely by the use of his front legs, his 

 hind legs apparently useless from some injury. A few days later a 

 Blue-tailed scink was caught in the act of shaking a Sceloporus by 

 the back of the neck. The Sceloporus was fully as large as the 

 scink. On examining his hind legs they were found to have been 

 chewed and the bones broken. This shows how aggressive and 

 warlike these little seines are. 



So we find that lizards live upon grasshoppers, crickets, and 

 beetles, all harmful insects, with a possible exception of a few of 

 the beetles. 



Among the batrachians we find a greater range of diet, but on 

 the whole it consists of insects. 



Amhlystoma tigrinum or Mud puppy, the common salamander, 

 is found in ponds, and naturally lives on water insects, although 

 occasional land forms are eaten. Of three larvpe, the stomachs con- 

 tained, respectively, four, seven and two water-boatmen; in an 

 adult form one ground-beetle was found. In another the stomach 

 was distended with mud. 



To the common toad ( Bujo lentiginosus amei'icanus ) we owe 

 a great deal for its vast destruction of insects. They begin their 

 useful work as soon as they leave the tadpole stage, and have no 

 choice in the kind of insects or vermin they eat. They are, in ad- 

 dition, great gormands. Toads eat mostly at night or in the twi- 

 light. Street lights are their favorite rendezvous. Great numbers 

 often congregate in these places. In Kansas City fifty toads were 

 counted under one light at one time. They will run in numbers 

 from two to as many dozen under a single light. The young ones 

 are to be found in swampy places or near ponds. Three young 

 specimens collected in Graham county, about three-fourths of an 

 inch in length, contained as follows : Twelve ants and twelve small 

 beetles, twenty-eight ants and three small beetles, twenty ants and 

 one beetle. A specimen seven-sixteenths of an inch long con- 

 tained nine snapping-beetles. A specimen one and four-tenths 

 inches long contained four medium-sized ground-beetles. Two 

 adults had eaten as follows: The first, one large Scolopetidra, four 

 snout-beetles, one moth, and one ground-beetle ; the second, ten 

 May-beetles, three snout-beetles, and two ground-beetles. Spiders 

 and phasmids have also been found in the stomach of this species. 



A number of toads were collected from three lights at Kansas 

 City at nine o'clock p. M. on June 9. The toads had not been away 

 from their retreats more than an hour or two. From among this 



