Lind legs and sides and rolled in a ball in front of the 

 chest; it is then with difficulty gulped down and our toad 

 appears in a bright new shining garment, that however 

 rapidly dries and darkens to nearly the same shade as the 

 old one. Toads are perfectly harmless and can be handled 

 freely, in spite of the old superstitions of ill-luck, poison- 

 ous and "wart-making'' properties ascribed to them. 



In winter they hibernate, burrowing several inches un- 

 der ground and remaining torpid until the warm weather 

 of the following spring awakens them. Immediately upon 

 emerging from their long "sleep", they make for some 

 pond where they sport about in company with many other 

 toads and frogs. At this time they are very happy and 

 their low, musical, crooning trill is heard constantly. The 

 female deposits her eggs in the water in long, continuous 

 strings coiled upon the water plants. They develop more 

 rapidly than those of frogs, the tiny black tadpoles appear- 

 ing without the jelly mass in four or five days. Within 

 about ten days, their mouths have opened and they are full- 

 fledged "polly-wogs." It is a peculiarity of very young 

 toad-tadpoles that they go about in large compact schools. 

 In less than two months from the time the eggs are laid, 

 the tadpoles have changed into tiny frogs and many have 

 left the pond. They are very small and very dark, — 

 smaller than any of the frogs, and their backs have no 

 sign of the roughness or warts that will appear later. 

 Young toads shed their coats usually a half dozen times 

 before winter; this is necessary because of their rapid 

 growth, — they become too large for their garments and of 

 course must have new ones. 



I have said that toads eat many ants, so what more ap- 

 propriate than that we turn our attention to these ants. 

 Like toads, we find plenty of them right in our yard as well 

 as in the fields. 



