338 RAMBLES ABOUT HOME. 



innumerable flies. Once, watch in hand, I timed it, with 

 the following result : In three minutes it captured twen- 

 ty-nine flies, supposing that it never missed its aim. The 

 toad looked like a child's rocking-horse while thus en- 

 gaged, and no wonder, for once in every six seconds it 

 leaned forward, shot out its tongue, and then came back 

 with a flop to its original position. Then out again and 

 back, and so it kept up for the three minutes. Then a 

 pause of three or four, during which a new lot of flies 

 accumulated, and the three-minute job was repeated. 

 This toad has been a fixture in the kitchen-pavement for 

 nine years, and, I am happy to add, still lives. Think 

 kindly of toads, then, all ye who have a horror of flies. 



Although a nocturnal animal, the toad is by no means 

 disposed to remain idle through the day. It is, however, 

 only after sundown that protracted foraging expeditions 

 are undertaken, and it is only at that time that it sings ! 

 Why not call it singing ? Frogs " sing," in common parl- 

 ance, although some ill-natured folk call it grunting, and 

 the toads certainly have an equal right to have their vocal 

 efforts similarly named. It is a deep, penetrating, me- 

 tallic rattle that may be heard a long way off, and, when 

 one after another repeats the note, it becomes a feature of 

 the serenade with which our country folk are nightly 

 favored during the summer months. The frogs get the 

 credit of the performance with many, but this " mixing" 

 of different things is not unusual in matters zoological. 



One word more. Toads do go to the water to lay 

 their eggs, and these eggs do not hatch into hoppers, but 

 into little tadpoles, which have to wait with patience for 

 their legs to grow. Then these ridiculous miniatures of 

 their sedate parents come hopping from the ditches in 

 regiments and brigades, and were it not that very many 

 of the birds, mammals, and reptiles in the neighborhood 



