18 FAMILIAR LIFE IN FIELD AND FOREST. 



Bingers of spring, comes the common toad {Bufo 

 americanui). The poor, brown, warty creature 

 whicli is so repulsive in appearance, and which one 

 sliudders to touch, possesses one of the sweetest 

 voices of spring — a dreamy, luUing, musical voice, 

 well fitted to sing the slumber song of Nature, and 

 transport every living thing in woodland and mead- 

 ow to the mysterious land of dreams. The birds, it 

 is true, may be thus sung to sleep, but not so with all 

 the rest of the animal creation ; most of it delights 

 to prowl about all night long, just as Robert Louis 

 Stevenson says, and none of it cares a straw for an 

 accompanying nocturne : 



" The squalling cat and the squeaking- mouse, 

 Tlie howling dog by the door of the house, 

 The bat that lies in bed at noon, 

 AH love to be out by the light of the moon." 



By moonlight the song of the toad seems even 

 more entrancing ; but cat and weasel, coon and 

 skunk, fox and bat — all are intent on prey, and our 

 lullaby singers make some of it. 



Every dweller in the country is familiar with the 

 voice of Bufo (imericanus. In the breeding season, 

 from April to June, the toad resorts to the swampy 

 parts of the meadow, and there winds his horn for 

 the delectation of his mate. The sound is a some- 



