THE COMMON TOAD. 125 



it was surprised to find that though the usual snap was made 

 the insect never moved. On close examination I found that 

 being near-sighted I had mistaken a fly that had been smashed 

 in closing the door for a living specimen, and the toad evi- 

 dently made the same mistake. If they do not succeed 

 when they strike at an insect, they will try again and again, 

 in no way discouraged by failure. 



In collecting flies for their benefit, a glass tube, closed at 

 one end with a cork, has been found very handy. Flies at 

 rest are easily caught by a rapid sweep of the hand, and if 

 the open end of the tube is then thrust into the hand, the 

 fly will quickly make its way into it, and thus one or two 

 dozen flies can be readily introduced into the tube, as they 

 will always collect at that end which is pointed to the light. 

 If this tube is then placed in the toad vivarium, the insects 

 will crawl out one by one, and as they proceed along it the 

 toads will repeatedly strike at them, not deterred by the 

 hard glass that balks their attempts. The swallow of the 

 toad must be capacious, as insects of large size go down at 

 one gulp. The cockroach of our kitchens, commonly called 

 the " black-beetle," is a substantial insect ; but the largest 

 specimen disappears as quickly as a house fly, though not un- 

 frequently one of the antennae is seen projecting cigar-fashion 

 from the toad's mouth for a minute or two. Hard beetles, if 

 of any size, appear more difficult to dispose of. I have seen 

 a large Otiorhynchus reproduced with a dreadful grimace the 

 next minute after it had been swallowed ; but a second 

 attempt was more successful and the poor insect was seen 

 no more in the land of the living. 



The manner in which a toad manages to get 

 rid of his old skin has been thus minutely de- 

 scribed by an eye-witness : 



About the middle of July I found a toad on a hill of 

 melons, and, not wanting him to leave, I hoed around him ; 



