1912.] NATURAL SCIENCES OF PHILADELPHIA. 293 
introduced from the squash leaf so that the animal would get the 
first and fullest effects of the odor; the result was that the toad went 
through a series of contortions followed by a short period of stupor 
similar to that mentioned before. Upon recovery the toad was 
again removed to the vivarium, where it now lives in partial hiber- 
nation. 
‘““A young, red-spotted salamander was affected and killed as 
easily as the half-grown toad, while for the common field frog a 
greater number of bugs were required to bring about similar effects, 
the frogs also being killed. Many experiments with snakes were 
tried, but no ill effects from the secretion of the bugs were apparent. 
“The odor that the bug secretes is contained in a clear, slightly 
greenish liquid expelled from the extremity of the alimentary canal; 
when it comes in contact with the air the odor is given off almost 
instantaneously while the liquid remains to evaporate. 
“Further observations showed that toads in confinement would 
eat squash bugs when very hungry, but we do not think that toads 
ordinarily devour many of the pests.’’!® 
It is most obvious that the conditions of these experiments are 
never even faintly simulated under natural conditions. The con- 
clusions in the last paragraph, being based on the results of the 
experiments, are therefore unwarranted. Moreover, they do not 
agree with the statements of other observers relating to the habits 
of the toad under normal conditions. Kirkland found Anasa tristis 
in collected stomachs,!’ as did also Judd and the writer. 
Kirkland briefly records an experiment of his own as follows: 
“The writer once confined for study a large toad in a shaded 
out-of-door box filled with damp earth. To provide suitable and 
sufficient food for it was quite a task until an entirely satisfactory 
expedient suggested itself. A hard bread-crust was soaked in 
molasses and placed in the cage. Bees, wasps, ants, flies, and beetles 
came to this bait, and it was most interesting to watch the toad 
seize the flying insects, often before they had alighted on the bread. 
Stinging insects, bees, wasps, etc., when swallowed by “the toad 
apparently produced uncomfortable sensations for a short time. 
Fish-worms when captured by the toad often prove too much to be 
swallowed at once, and when this is the case the fore limbs are brought 
16 “The Squash Bug,” Bull. 89, New Hampshire Agric. Exp. Sta., February, 
1902, pp. 21-23. 
7 Bul. 46, Hatch Exp. Sta., 1897, p. 26. 
