THE AMPHIBIA 



173 



There is no foundation, however, for the superstition that 

 handling toads produces warts, for they can be handled 

 with perfect safety. Few animals are more useful to the 

 farmer or gardener than these humble creatures for they 

 devour large quantities of injurious insects which they 

 catch during their nocturnal wanderings. Kirkland has 

 estimated that in a farming section in Massachusetts 



FIG. 138. The bullfrog. (After Needham.) 



every toad is worth several dollars on account of the cut- 

 worms alone, which it devours in a single season. For 

 some reason many persons indulge in the repulsive pro- 

 clivity of killing all the toads they meet with. Such con- 

 duct is not only foolish and cruel, but it is quite opposed 

 to their own interests. The ugliness of the toad doubtless 

 tends to make people treat it with contempt but like the 



