INSECTIVOROUS ANIMALS 



293 



had lived all winter, he had doubtless fed on slugs all the autumn. 

 I could have kissed him on the spot ! Very carefully I placed him 

 in the middle of a large green clump of tender columbine. He really 

 was n't more than half awake, after his long winter nap, but he was 

 alive and well, and when later I went to look for him, lo ! he had 

 crept off, perhaps to snuggle into the earth once more for another 

 nap, till the sun should have a little more power. 



To our great joy the frogs that we imported last year are also 

 alive. We heard the soft rippling of their voices with the utmost 

 pleasure ; it is a lovely liquid-sweet sound. They have not lived 

 over winter here before. We feared that the vicinity of so much 

 salt water might be injurious to them, but this year they have 

 survived, and perhaps they may be established for good. Celia 

 Thaxter, All Is/and Garden^ p. 56. 



For four hundred years we have not added a single 

 animal to our list of domesticated species. The turkey 

 was taken to Europe and domesticated soon after the dis- 

 covery of America, and while ostrich farming is in its 

 experimental stages, Professor Shaler seems inclined to 

 consider this our last assured conquest over wild nature. 



From this point of view our domesticated creatures should be 

 presented to our people, with the purpose in mind of bringing them 

 to see that the process of domestication has a far-reaching aspect, 

 a dignity, we may fairly say a grandeur, that few human actions 

 possess. Shaler, Domesticated Animals, p. 8. 



In a large way the work of domestication represents one of the 

 modes of action of that sympathetic motive which more than any 

 other has been the basis of the highest development of mankind. 

 Ibid., p. 22 [. 



Thus we see that to domesticate an animal species is no 

 mean work with which to begin a century. 



The toad has come more than halfway, to man's 

 doorstep in fact, to escape its natural enemies and 



