Some curious Animal Weapons. 81 
are long, as of a wind instrument, not unmelodious, 
and so powerful as to make themselves heard dis- 
tinctly a mile off on still evenings. After the 
amorous period these toads retire to moist places 
and sit inactive, buried just deep enough to leave 
the broad green back on a level with the surface, 
and it is then very difficult to detect them. In 
this position they wait for their prey—frogs, toads, 
birds, and small mammals. Often they capture and 
attempt to swallow things too large for them, a 
mistake often made by snakes. In very wet springs 
they sometimes come about houses and lhe in wait 
for chickens and ducklings. In disposition they are 
most truculent, savagely biting at anything that 
comes near them; and when they bite they hang on 
with the tenacity of a bulldog, poisoning the blood 
with their glandular secretions. When teased, the 
creature swells itself out to such an extent one 
almost expects to see him burst; he follows his 
tormentors about with slow awkward leaps, his 
vast mouth wide open, and uttering an incessant 
harsh croaking sound. A gaucho I knew was once 
bitten by one. He sat down on the grass, and, 
dropping his hand at his side, had it seized, and 
only freed himself by using his hunting knife to 
force the creature’s mouth open. He washed and 
bandaged the wound, and no bad result followed ; 
but when the toad cannot be shaken off, then the 
result is different. One summer two horses were 
found dead on the plain near my home. One, while 
lying down, had been seized by a fold in the skin 
near the belly; the other had been grasped by the 
nose while cropping grass. In both instances the 
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