218 



ANIMAL SKETCHES. 



CHAP. 



look-out for tired bees. When they wearily settled on 

 the ground he would waddle up towards them, pause for 

 a moment, and then jerk out his long, white, sticky 

 tongue (which is fixed to the front of the lower jaw and 

 lies backward in the mouth) ; and the tongue would come 

 flop on to the poor bee, who stuck to it quite involuntarily, 

 and was thus slung back into the toad's mouth. I think 

 she sometimes stung the toad ; but that sedate creature 



TOAD. 



only winked a little, like a person who has taken a little 

 too much mustard or cayenne pepper. 



Frogs and toads always have the air of being such 

 silent creatures, yet some kinds can make a great noise. 

 The bull frog emits a deep roar or bellowing which can be 

 heard to a great distance. Hence its popular name. The 

 European tree frogs make a shrill piping noise. And the 

 edible frogs in our English fenland croak so loud, and with 

 such sweetness withal, as to have won for themselves the 

 name of Cambridge nightingales. Still a frog always looks 

 a silent creature, perhaps from the habit of never opening 

 his mouth except when he wants to jerk out his tongue 

 at something good to eat. 



