Batrachian Study 



183 



As the tadpole grows older, not only does its tail become shorter but 

 its actions change. It now comes often to the surface of the water in 

 order to get more air for its gills, although it lacks the frog tadpole's 

 nice adjustment of the growing lungs and the disappearing gills. At 

 last some fine rainy day, the little creature feels that it is finally fitted 

 to live the life of a land animal. It may not be a half inch in 

 length, with big head, attenuated body and stumpy tail, but it swims to 

 the shore, lifts itself on its front legs, which are scarcely larger than pins, 

 and walks off, toeing in, with a very grown up air, and at this moment, the 

 tadpole attains toadship. Numbers of them come out of the water 

 together, hopping hither and thither with all of the eagerness and vim of 

 untried youth. It is when issuing thus in hordes from the water and seen 

 by the ignorant, that they gain the reputation of being rained down, when 

 they really were rained up. It is quite impossible for a beginner to detect 

 the difference between the toad and the frog tadpole; usually those of the 

 toads are black, while those of the frogs are otherwise colored, though this 

 is not an invariable distinction. The best way to distinguish the two is 

 to get the eggs and develop the two families separately. 



The general color of the common American toad is extremely variable. 

 It may be yellowish-brown, with spots of lighter color, and with reddish or 

 yellow warts. There are likely to be four irregular spots of dark color 

 along each side of the middle of the back, and the under parts are light 

 colored, often somewhat spotted. The throat of the male toad is black 

 and he is not so bright m color as is the female. The warts upon the back 

 are glands, which secrete a substance disagreeable for the animal seeking 

 toad dinners. This is especially true of the glands in the elongated 

 swelling or wart, above and just back of the ear, which is Called the 

 parotid gland; these give forth a milky, poisonous substance when the 

 toad is seized by an enemy, although the snakes do not seem to mind it. 

 Some people have an idea that the toad is slimy, but this is not true; the 

 skin is perfectly dry. The toad feels cold to the hand because it is a cold- 

 blooded animal, which means an animal with blood the temperature of 

 the surrounding atmosphere; while the blood of the warm-blooded 

 animal, has a temperature of its own, which it maintains whether the 

 surrounding air is cold or hot. 



The toad's face is well worth 

 study; its eyes are elevated 

 and very pretty, the pupil being 

 oval and the surrounding iris 

 shining like gold. The toad 

 winks in a wholesale fashion, the 

 eyes being pulled down into the 

 head; the eyes are provided with 

 nictitating lids, which rise from 

 below, and are similar to those 

 found in birds. When a toad is 

 sleeping, its eyes do not bulge 

 but are drawn in, so as to lie even 

 with the surface of the head. 

 The two tiny nostrils are black 

 and are easily seen ; the ear is a 

 fiat, oval spot behind the eye 



After a hard winter. 

 Photo by Cyrus Crosby, 



