INJURIOUS INSECTS OF 1904. 



167 



ponds for breeding, and the air is filled at that time with that 

 shrill purring which is so characteristic of the early spring, when 

 the poplars and cottonwood are in bloom and the first moccasin 

 flowers are found in the woods. 



The eggs, to the number of 1,000 or 

 more, unlike those of the frog, are laid in 

 strings of gelatinous matter wound about 

 aquatic or submerged grass. These eggs 

 hatch after a while into tadpoles or polli- 

 wogs, much resembling the tadpoles of the 

 frogs, which breathe for a part of their lives 

 by means of gills, and are familiar to every 

 farmer's boy and any one at all observant in 

 These so-called polliwogs after a while lose 

 their tails, acquiring first hind legs and then fore legs, while their 

 tails are disappearing. Losing their gills, they finally breathe en- 

 tirely- by means of lungs. Then they emerge from the water in 

 large numbers. They avoid the sun, and both old and young are 



Fig. 160j^.— Head of Toad, 

 showing the peculiar at- 

 tachment of the tongue. 

 After Kirkland. 



the fields and woods. 



Fig. 161. — Toads' Eggs. 



seen at night-fall, or sometimes in large numbers after a rain, at 

 which latter time their extreme abundance gives rise to the popular 

 belief that "it is raining toads."' 



Those of these young creatures that escape their enemies (and 

 their foes are extremely numerous) begin before very long their 



