HABITS OF THE TOAD 



139 



built frog leaps gracefully and far; but the plethoric Toad is 

 content to wriggle or hop briefly through life. Its existence 

 depends largely upon the fact that as yet man finds no value 

 in it, and does not regard it as worth killing. When Toads 



COMMON TOAD. 



become salable at five cents each, their extermination will 

 follow soon. 



The Toad deposits its eggs in water, in long strings, and 

 after the transformation they grow so slowly that even in 

 August the toadlets are so minute that about three could sit 

 upon a copper cent. They seem more like insects than am- 

 phibians with bony skeletons. In winter these creatures 

 hide away in the deepest crevices they can find, or the cavities 

 of hollow trees, or holes in the earth, and lie dormant until 

 spring recalls them to life. 



