FROGS, TOADS, SALAMANDERS, SNAKES, ETC. 159 



insects, bits of fresh meat, etc., before it. After observing it 

 for a while, and slowly approaching the food, the toad all at 

 once, quick as a wink, has licked up the morsel. Children 

 will be much interested and amused at seeing it eat. 

 Toads may be tamed in the garden so as to come at a call or 

 whistle to be fed. 



So useful are toads that gardeners like to have them in 

 their gardens. Next to the robins I consider them my 

 best helpers in destroying cutworms, beetles, and other 

 injurious insects. Toads may be found elsewhere and 

 brought home and placed in the garden, where they will 

 generally remain and do good work. 



Teach the children the harmlessness and great usefulness 

 of toads, and discourage the erroneous belief in their wart- 

 producing power. By all means discourage the cruel and 

 senseless habit that many boys have of killing these little 

 creatures. 



Toads hibernate. They burrow their way backward into 

 the soft earth till they are deep enough not to be affected by 

 the alternate freezing and thawing of fall and early spring, 

 and here sleep away the winter in a kind of torpor. In the 

 warm spring, however, they dig their way out. This act of 

 going into winter quarters may be observed, if we place a 

 toad in a box of loose earth in the latter part of the fall. If 

 the box is placed in a cool spot the toad will probably begin 

 to burrow sooner. 



Is the toad ugly? Of what use is his ugliness to him? 

 He certainly has a very beautiful eye. 



Salamanders are tailed amphibians and are often mis- 

 called "lizards." They develop much like frogs and toads, 

 except that they do not lose their tails, and their food is the 



