ADAPTATION FOR THE INDIVIDUAL 113 
the parent toad when about big enough to cover your 
little fingernail. Now they leave the water and seek 
dry land. Naturally they make the change when the 
land is damp, that is, after a warm spring rain. Peo- 
ple seeing these multitudes of little toads hopping 
around over a bare spot of ground, and remembering 
the rain of the night before, insist that it has rained 
toads. Of course it never rains down anything which 
cannot evaporate up. The stories of showers of toads 
and of earth worms, with an occasional fish, or even 
creatures of larger size, are all pure myths. There 
are conceivable tornadoes after which there might be 
a shower of such creatures, but at such a time it is 
likely also to rain barn roofs and buggies. You may 
be sure that toads which come down in the rain are 
dead after they strike the ground. 
The little toads started out, perhaps a hundred at a 
time, from the small pool in which their eggs were 
laid. These creatures find dragons on every side. 
The gartersnake comes along and gets his first toll; 
the heron follows him and takes such as catch his 
hungry eye; the turkey gobbles up his from what are 
left. By the time the toad-eating creatures in the 
neighborhood have taken such as they found, there 
are very few remaining. These doubtless have been 
left for a very good reason, generally because they 
were not noticed. This was because they looked like 
