TOADS AND FROGS 



Frogs are altogether more lively creatures 

 than toads ; they not only take flying leaps 

 instead of proceeding at a sedate walk, but 

 you will find them abroad in the daytime in 

 damp places. This seems rather risky on their 

 part, as so many birds and beasts like them for 

 a meal. Owls, buzzards, badgers, and polecats 

 eat them greedily. Snakes too catch frogs, 

 though sometimes in captivity they will go on 

 hunger strike and refuse even the nicest of small 

 frogs. I remember one grass snake, a particu- 

 larly nice one, which would not eat, and I had 

 to catch small frogs, kill them, and then stuff 

 the bodies down its neck. At last it got tired 

 of forcible feeding, and ate just when I did 

 not want it to. Thinking it was quite safe with 

 frogs as it would not touch them when offered, 

 and being short of room, I put it in the same 

 case with some green tree frogs, but in a few 

 moments heard a curious noise and hurried 

 to the cage in time to see tfce last of my 

 little frogs disappearing down the snake's 

 neck ! I was too late to save it. The noise 

 I had heard had been its last gasping cry. 



The common frog is a very prettily marked 

 creature, with its varying shades of greeny- 

 browns, buffs, bright browns, and not only do 

 H 113 



