154 OUT OF DOORS, 



the waving of the lion's tail while the animal is crouch- 

 ing in view of its intended prey. 



Although the toad can endure a very long fast, 

 there seems to be no limit to its gormandising capaci- 

 ties when it meets with a plentiful supply of food. 

 The smaller of my specimens ate successively several 

 worms, a great ' woolly bear ' caterpillar (i.e., the larva 

 of the tiger moth, Arctia ccy'a), a large grub, apparently 

 the larval state of some beetle, a number of smaller 

 insects, and a large ground beetle (Carabus violaceus). 

 These various capabilities render it a most useful 

 animal, and one which should be carefully guarded by 

 every owner of a garden. For at night, when the 

 obnoxious slugs, flies, beetles, and other insects are on 

 the move, the toad comes out to prey on them, and 

 quietly performs very great service by the steady, 

 thorough-going manner in which it clears the plants of 

 every creature that moves. 



Some entomologists, whose zeal for the enrichment 

 of their cabinets exceeds their humanity, are in the 

 habit of sallying out into the fields at early dawn, 

 killing all the toads that they can find, and opening 

 them for the purpose of getting the insects that have 

 been swallowed during the night. Some of the rarest 

 British specimens have been taken in this manner, 

 beetles being the usual denizens of the locality. Con- 

 chologists are accustomed to employ a similar mode of 

 collecting the objects of their research, and find some 

 of the best specimens in the stomachs of several deep 

 sea fishes ; and microscopists in like manner find a vast 



