278 NATURE STUDY AND LIFE 



where toads are plenty. It will often be mingled with 

 low musical trills of the male toad. This is the signal by 

 which you may know that all the adult toads are migrat- 

 ing to the nearest pond to lay their eggs. That same 

 night, or as you awake in the morning, you will hear 

 the country ringing with the music Gibson has so well 

 described as the " sweetest sound in nature." As spring 

 draws slowly on, my ears grow impatient to hear it, and 

 as the years go by I enjoy it more and more. True, 



Fig. 114. Life St(jry 



Showing egg, tadpole, young toad just emerged from water, one year old, and 

 adult. {/', c, t/, i', photographs by the author) 



some may think it monotonous. It may come but once 

 a year, and then only for a few days, and to me it is one 

 of the cheeriest wedding bells of the season. 



But the early musicians are now forgotten. A new singer has 

 come upon tlie scene, and his mellow nocturne in the twilight marshes 

 brings a message unknown to his predecessors. This is no shrill 

 peep that stirs your blood and sets your ears a-tingle, no bubbling 

 rattle or vibrant croak that cries "qui vive " to your eager senses, 

 but a drowsy drool that brings your feet to loitering in the deepening 

 dusk, and whose distant music from the swampy lowlands lulls you 



