WILD CREATURES OF GARDEN AND HEDGEROW 



beak on its perch. The owl wiped away so 

 energetically and looked so disgusted that I 

 could not help smiling ; but c Hooter ' evidently 

 saw nothing to laugh at in it, and ever after 

 refused toads, though always pleased to take 

 frogs. I have made the same experiment with 

 other flesh-eating birds and animals, with 

 always the same result. Old and experienced 

 ones refusing at once, young and innocent 

 individuals sampling the toad and then turning 

 away with every sign of disgust. 



Though so well protected, the toad is shy 

 and retiring for the greater part of the year. 

 He hides all day in some hole which we may 

 call his den, for it is his home to which 

 he returns each morning after the night's 

 hunting is over. This retreat may be down a 

 mouse hole at the edge of a ditch, under a 

 cabbage plant in the garden, beneath a stone 

 in the rockery, or down a crevice behind your 

 doorstep. As long as he can find a nice 

 damp and really private hole he does not mind 

 where it is. It is this habit that accounts for 

 toads being found in very strange places, 

 and for the accounts given in all good faith of 

 ones which are supposed to have been found 

 in the solid rock or inside a growing tree. Of 

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