loo BIRD PARADISE 



life. In fact, I know of no forward movement 

 anywhere that is anything else but curious. 

 Three families of the frogs — counting the toads as 

 one — begin their career in the shifting house of 

 the water. I can understand the process of get- 

 ting the eggs into the liquid incubator, but how 

 hatching is brought about with all certainty lies 

 wholly out of my sphere of knowledge. I am 

 quite sure every egg hatches and occasionally I 

 get the notion that some of them hatch twice. 

 Stranger, however, than all else are the transfor- 

 mations that take place ere the young fellows 

 graduate as full-fledged adults in their respective 

 clans. Not the slightest resemblance exists in 

 form between the young and old of these curious 

 creatures. But somebody cares for them and they 

 come safely through all their perils and trials. 

 Once or twice I have met with the young toads, 

 when they were moving from the watery home. 

 Hundreds were in the throng, all of them eager to 

 get somewhere on the solid land. I give them 

 hearty welcome to my lawn and garden, know- 

 ing that their work among the insects is of large 

 value to tillers of the soil. 



Years ago, one of our most common birds bore 

 the name of cow-bunting. They belonged to the 



