ADAPTATION FOR THE INDIVIDUAL 113 



the parent toad when about big enough to cover your 

 little fingernail. Now they leave the water and seek 

 dry land. Naturally they make the change when the 

 land is damp, that is, after a warm spring rain. Peo- 

 ple seeing these multitudes of little toads hopping 

 around over a bare spot of ground, and remembering 

 the rain of the night before, insist that it has rained 

 toads. Of course it never rains down anything which 

 cannot evaporate up. The stories of showers of toads 

 and of earth worms, with an occasional fish, or even 

 creatures of larger size, are all pure myths. There 

 are conceivable tornadoes after which there might be 

 a shower of such creatures, but at such a time it is 

 likely also to rain barn roofs and buggies. You may 

 be sure that toads which come down in the rain are 

 dead after they strike the ground. 



The little toads started out, perhaps a hundred at a 

 time, from the small pool in which their eggs were 

 laid. These creatures find dragons on every side. 

 The gartersnake comes along and gets his first toll; 

 the heron follows him and takes such as catch his 

 hungry eye ; the turkey gobbles up his from what are 

 left. By the time the toad-eating creatures in the 

 neighborhood have taken such as they found, there 

 are very few remaining. These doubtless have been 

 left for a very good reason, generally because they 

 were not noticed. This was because they looked like 



