Gold Beetles: Their Nuptial Habits 



Toad? I see no other in the enclosure to 

 whom I can attribute a salmagundy of Ants. 

 Experiment will solve the riddle for us. 



I have an old acquaintance in the garden 

 and I know where he lives. We often meet 

 at the hour of my evening rounds. He looks 

 at me with his gold-yellow eyes and gravely 

 passes on to attend to his business. He is 

 a Toad big enough to fill a saucer, a veteran 

 respected by the whole household. We call 

 him the Philosopher. I apply to him to 

 elucidate the question of the conglomerations 

 of Ants' heads. 



I imprison him in a cage, without any food, 

 and wait until the contents of his sated 

 paunch undergo the labours of digestion. 

 Things do not take very long. After a few 

 days' time, the prisoner presents me with a 

 specimen of black ordure, moulded into a 

 cylinder, exactly resembling those which I 

 observe on the paths of the enclosure. It 

 is, like the others, an amalgam of Ants' 

 heads. I restore the Philosopher to liberty. 

 Thanks to him, the problem which puzzled 

 me so greatly is solved: I know for certain 

 that the Toad is a great eater of Ants, a very 

 small quarry, it is true, but easy to collect 

 and inexhaustible. 



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