Some curious Animal Weapons. 81 



are long, as of a wind instrument, not unmelodious , 

 and so powerful as to make themselves heard dis- 

 tinctly a mile off on still evenings. After the 

 amorous period these toads retire to moist places 

 and sit inactive, buried just deep enough to leave 

 the broad green back on a level with the surface, 

 and it is then very difficult to detect them. In 

 this position they wait for their prey — frogs, toads, 

 birds, and small mammals. Often they capture and 

 attempt to swallow things too large for them, a 

 mistake often made by snakes. In very wet springs 

 they sometimes come about houses and lie in wait 

 for chickens and ducklings. In disposition they are 

 most truculent, savagely biting at anything that 

 comes near them ; and when they bite they hang on 

 with the tenacity of a bulldog, poisoning the blood 

 with their glandular secretions. When teased, the 

 creature swells itself out to such an extent one 

 almost expects to see him burst; he follows his 

 tormentors about with slow awkward leaps, his 

 vast mouth wide open, and uttering an incessant 

 harsh croaking sound. A gaucho I knew was once 

 bitten by one. He sat down on the grass, and, 

 dropping his hand at his side, had it seized, and 

 only freed himself by using his hunting knife to 

 force the creature's mouth open. He washed and 

 bandaged the wound, and no bad result followed ; 

 but when the toad cannot be shaken off, then the 

 result is different. One summer two horses were 

 found dead on the plain near my home. One, while 

 lying down, had been seized by a fold in the skin 

 near the belly ; the other had been grasped by the 

 nose while cropping grass. In both instances the 



