14 THE BIOLOGY OF THE FROG chap. 



then withdrawing it along with the insect to which it adheres. 

 Angleworms are seized by the jaws and stuffed into the 

 mouth by the fore legs. Toads are very useful in destroying 

 large numbers of injurious insects, and hence deserve all 

 possible encouragement and protection. Kirkland ^ and 

 Garman,- who have carefully examined the contents of the 

 stomachs of a large number of toads, find that the variety of 

 insects devoured is very great. Ants were the forms most 

 commonly met with in the stomachs, and beetles, bugs, 

 moths, and caterpillars were found by Garman to follow 

 successively in order of frequency. 



Toads keep within a certain locality for a long period. 

 They have their particular holes or nooks, where they lie 

 during the day and to which they return after their night's 

 journey in search of food. Their sense of locality is appar- 

 ently quite good, as is shown not only by the fact that they 

 find their way home, but by their habitually visiting certain 

 spots in the course of their nocturnal wanderings. The 

 longevity of toads is somewhat uncertain. Boulenger kept 

 one specimen for twelve years. There is a record of a 

 specimen which Hved to be thirty-six years old, and was then 

 accidentally killed. Cases are recorded in which a toad 

 has occupied a certain retreat for a longer period ; but the 

 identity of the individual is not assured. There are numer- 

 ous stories of live toads found embedded in rocks or sealed 

 up in trees ; but while many of them seem to be quite well 

 authenticated, they do not give evidence of sufficiently care- 

 ful investigation to compel belief. Buckland^ has shown 

 that toads may live without food, when sealed up in blocks 

 of hmestone, for over a year ; toads imprisoned in the lime- 



1 Kirkland, Bull. No. 46, Mass. Agric. Exp. Sta. 



2 Garman, Bull. No. 91, Ky. Exp. Sta. 



3 Buckland, " Curiosities of Natural History." 



