THE HORNED TOAD 149 



KENNETH. I found a horned toad buried in the crater 

 of the Honey ants. That toad often hides in the weeds 

 near the nest. When the ants come near it they are often 

 greatly frightened and run up the dead weeds and keep 

 quiet. 



CECIL. Then they will come down the weed and run to 

 the next one. And so on until they get home. At such 

 times they remain quiet on a weed will even let me pick 

 them off, even if they are the wildest ants around here. 



KENNETH. They act the same way when we come 

 around, too. I suppose little Horny darts his long, slender 

 tongue out and captures passing ants as quickly as you 

 can wink an eye. As he makes no noise, he must be a 

 dangerous enemy. 



CECIL. One day I stood Horny on his head in the door 

 of the ants and he remained quiet two minutes. Strange, but 

 the ants climbed over him or squeezed past his head and 

 never got scared until I removed him. I'll carry him away 

 and leave him in a garden. 



KENNETH. Ants are always surprising us always 

 giving us a problem to work out. I guess that's why we 

 like to study them. 



ALBERT. ' Strange we can never really catch Horny 

 eating our ants. 



FLORENCE. No, but George Aker, one of our school- 

 mates, did. George laid a small one on a crater alive with 

 ants. The toad ran and hid, but soon returned and licked 

 up many ants. 



DOROTHY. Yes. George said its tongue seemed to be 

 two inches long and moved so swiftly the eye could not 

 see it, but you could see that an ant had disappeared. 



KENNETH. Once I saw a real toad lick up a trail of 



