Rana and Bufo. 185 



After a rainy season the Spade-foot will emerge from its 

 hiding-place, attract attention by its loud cries, swarm by 

 hundreds about the ponds, lay innumerable eggs, and vanish. 

 But while thousands of eggs are laid, scarcely any hatch, for 

 most of them perish from being laid so near to the water's 

 edge as to become dried up on the subsidence of the water. 



Thus we find that toads have three different methods of 

 life. Some live on trees, but seldom appear upon the ground. 

 Others are underground dwellers, and hardly ever come to 

 the surface. But the Common Toad, and his numerous kin, 

 are dwellers in the ground, hiding among grass and other 

 herbage when asleep, or when the sun is too intense for their 

 comfort. But all toads, excepting the two varieties men- 

 tioned above, which carry their young on their bodies, repair 

 to the water to drop their eggs, and the young live in the 

 water until they have attained the adult state. 



