go REPORT OF NEW JERSEY STATE MUSEUM. 
among the most beneficial animals to man on account of the large 
number of insects which they destroy. Although the toad has 
been greatly discredited on account of its ugliness by most per- 
sons, the eye of this animal, on the other hand, has been 
thought from time immemorial an object of beauty. ‘The public 
sentiment in the case of the toad is, perhaps, greater than that 
of any other of its relatives, and it is rarely if ever killed, except 
with regret. The urchin who pelts frogs will seldom molest the 
toad. This, however, may not altogether be due to the supersti- 
tion that handling an individual will produce warts, or the more 
or less nocturnal habits of the animal, but to some appreciation of 
its value as an insect-destroyer. By the middle of spring they 
begin to utter their call-notes, which are kept up during most 
all of our warm weather, though seldom in the daylight. The 
eggs are laid in long strings and are familiar to most everyone. 
By early June most of them are hatched and scores, in some 
places hundreds, of the jet-black little tadpoles may be seen 
mostly quiet in some shallow pool. By the end of the month 
these will have changed to toads and be found far up on the hills, 
skipping about mostly over the more or less clear spaces. Dur- 
ing early and midsummer toads seem more noisy just after a rain 
at night. Sometimes their concert is prolonged and varied by 
the additional interpolated rattlings of Hyla versicolor, who will 
descend to low bushes, or along fences, and join in the chorus, 
probably under the incentive of the increased moisture. Usually 
in April, or just as soon as they have finished their winter hiber- 
nating, they repair to some shallow, quiet pool or pond. Fre- 
quently many of them may be found all about in the shallower 
places, as they do not swim very deep. Many such places are 
more or less choked up with vegetation, etc., so that the water 
is clear and still. The continual rolling call of the male toad 
may be heard for quite a distance, and as he utters it, sits 
mostly exposed or out of the water, though usually perfectly 
quiet, except for the slight movement of his throat in pumping 
air into his lungs. Suddenly his throat is greatly inflated and 
the long even hoarse call is emitted. It usually lasts for about 
15 or 20 seconds, stopping suddenly. Its quality is of even tona- 
