THE VOICE OF THE DESERT 28 



paw to stuff it down after the usual fashion of toads as I 

 have observed them in places very different from this. For 

 him and for many captive creatures, as well as for so many 

 Americans, hamburger became the Very staff of life. But 

 like most of the reptiles and amphibia, he does not seem 

 to take much pleasure in eating. It is a rather diflficult 

 business to be got over with as soon as possible, and his 

 attitude has not changed much now that he has gradu- 

 ated from hamburger to living insects. 



Small as he is, there is no difficulty in determining to 

 what species he belongs. Exposed to bright light, the pu- 

 pils of his eyes contract to vertical ellipses like the eyes 

 of a cat, and that fact suggests that he is one of the spade- 

 foot toads. The tiny speck of black horny tissue on each 

 hind foot clinches the matter. Moreover, since these 

 "spades" are crescent rather than wedge shaped, he stands 

 revealed as the Sonoran spadefoot or, more formally, 

 Scaphiopus couchii. When he is grown his spades will 

 be only a few millimeters long, but they will help him 

 to become a phenomenal digger. 



He has been my guest for some ten months now and 

 it was one of his kind who gave me one of my big sur- 

 prises during my first summer in the desert. One evening 

 after a heavy thundershower, the air was suddenly filled 

 with mysterious nasal "baas" and a flashlight revealed 

 hundreds of the small toads disporting themselves amo- 

 rously and otherwise in the unusual wetness. Two nights 

 later they had disappeared completely and were not to 

 be seen again until the next year. 



Even during most of the short, relatively wet season, 

 adults are not seen except rarely, though for one or two 

 nights the surface of the earth literally swarms with those 



