180 Life and Immortality, 
be enumerated. The toad has no teeth, but the frog, as 
has been stated before, has teeth in both the upper jaw and 
the palate. Similarly attached is the tongue, but the free 
end of the frog’s tongue is forked, and the toad’s entire. 
The skin of the toad is usually warty, while the frog’s is 
smooth. A rounder body, shorter hind-legs, less fully 
webbed feet and more rounded snout still further distin- 
guish the toad from the frog. Their soft moist skin shows 
them to be Amphibians. The absence of tails places them 
among the Anuran, or Tailless Amphibians. Thus far they 
agree well together, but differences loom up upon careful 
examination, and we are compelled to say of the frog that 
he belongs to the Ranidz, and of the toad that he belongs 
to the Bufonidze. Of the two animals, the toad is by far the 
more interesting and useful. 
The toad is almost unrestricted in his territorial range. 
He hops through the tropics and the temperate zones, and 
well up into the polar regions. Everywhere he is the same 
inoffensive, gentle, humble, useful and generally silent creat- 
ure. But like his human brother he has his faults. He has 
a great fondness for bees. Happy is he when, brigand-like, 
he can stand by the highway of the bees and capture them 
as they return to their waxen city. Their wealth of honey 
he does not demand as a ransom, but swallows the little 
creatures themselves, alive and whole, and digests them at 
leisure. Bee-eating seems his only fault. Not only the 
hive-bee, but other insects as well, share his attention. 
Millions of noxious beetles and bugs are devoured, and the 
world is the richer by thousands of bushels of fruit and vege- 
tables. The good he accomplishes largely outweighs the 
mischief he commits. So ceaselessly and swiftly he swal- 
lows his game, that a grasshopper’s legs or a sphinx’s 
antenne may often be seen sticking out of his mouth, while 
the carcass itself is well down in his throat. French garden- 
ers So appreciate his utility that he is brought to market and 
sold for a pittance to such as may need his services. 
