136 UPLAND AND MEADOW. 



of their fellows. They generally killed their victim in 

 the course of twenty-four hours, and often in less time, 

 and then promptly seized another. So bloodthirsty were 

 these few " retarded " tadpoles that I was compelled to 

 protect the lives of the little hoppers, their brethren, 

 which now, in spite of stumps of tails, sat in frog-like 

 fashion on their haunches, and were in all respects min- 

 iatures of the adult spade-foots that in April and June 

 made night hideous with their unearthly cries. 



Having tested several specimens, a few days previous- 

 ly, as to their ability to assume the land-life of adult 

 Scaphiopi, by placing them upon damp sand, and find- 

 ing that they throve fairly well, on the 25th of July I 

 removed the water in the aquarium and put in earth to 

 about an inch in depth, and very carefully smoothed the 

 surface. Upon this the young spade-foots were placed, 

 and in less than one minute many had commenced dig- 

 ging little burrows, into which they disappeared as the 

 excavations deepened. In all respects these burrows 

 were like those made by adult spade-foots, oval in out- 

 line, oblique in direction, and generally with a slight 

 angle in the course. In twenty minutes all but two, of 

 forty-four specimens, were below the surface of the 

 earth stratum I had placed in the aquarium. 



It now became monotonous in the extreme to watch 

 them. Not a movement occurred that was other than 

 might be expected of adult toads or frogs of any spe- 

 cies. 



I did not see them eat, but as only living food would 

 now be accepted by them, it was simply because minute 

 insect life did not come within reach ; but while yet in 



