1 80 Life and Immortality. 



be enumerated. The toad has no teeth, but the frog, as 

 has been stated before, has teeth in both the upper jaw and 

 the palate. Similarly attached is the tongue, but the free 

 end of the frog's tongue is forked, and the toad's entire. 

 The skin of the toad is usually warty, while the frog's is 

 smooth. A rounder body, shorter hind-legs, less fully 

 webbed feet and more rounded snout still further distin- 

 guish the toad from the frog. Their soft moist skin shows 

 them to be Amphibians. The absence of tails places them 

 among the Anuran, or Tailless Amphibians. Thus far they 

 agree well together, but differences loom up upon careful 

 examination, and we are compelled to say of the frog that 

 he belongs to the Ranidae, and of the toad that he belongs 

 to the Bufonidae. Of the two animals, the toad is by far the 

 more interesting and useful. 



The toad is almost unrestricted in his territorial range. 

 He hops through the tropics and the temperate zones, and 

 well up into the polar regions. Everywhere he is the same 

 inoffensive, gentle, humble, useful and generally silent creat- 

 ure. But like his human brother he has his faults. He has 

 a great fondness for bees. Happy is he when, brigand-like, 

 he can stand by the highway of the bees and capture them 

 as they return to their waxen city. Their wealth of honey 

 he does not demand as a ransom, but swallows the little 

 creatures themselves, alive and whole, and digests them at 

 leisure. Bee-eating seems his only fault. Not only the 

 hive-bee, but other insects as well, share his attention. 

 Millions of noxious beetles and bugs are devoured, and the 

 world is the richer by thousands of bushels of fruit and vege- 

 tables. The good he accomplishes largely outweighs the 

 mischief he commits. So ceaselessly and swiftly he swal- 

 lows his game, that a grasshopper's legs or a sphinx's 

 antennae may often be seen sticking out of his mouth, while 

 the carcass itself is well down in his throat. French garden- 

 ers so appreciate his utility that he is brought to market and 

 sold for a pittance to such as may need his services. 



