THE TOAD AS AN ENTOMOLOGIST. 333 
scraped the contents of his stomach into my bottle of spirits, I 
started home, resolved to see what the insects were before break- 
fast. 
I spread them out on a sheet of blotting-paper and counted 
them, the result being as follows, naming them for the benefit of 
my entomological S who have not made use of the toad as a 
collector of insects 
There were kaiti perfect specimens, viz., — 
No. of Specimens. 
Cymindis pilosa, ra i ORG 
latynus hamein com two 
Bembidium Coe tiikoatiin nidbiadion,’ 
Cercoyn, undetermined, ` y three 
s jocosus, common, PAOR E a one 
Pæderus littorarius, rare, . AEE e e a DA 
Ips faciatus, common, AE a Uke a0 Sa a E a O, 
Ips sanguinolentus, common; eta cig y NEY eS el ec unos tw) o 
Besides these, there was one elytron each of Hippodamia and 
of Brachycantha ; also vestiges of legs and wings of other insects. 
I have killed several toads since, with similar results; one, I 
may mention, had the stomach filled with a species of Chrysome- 
lide, Doryphora trimaculata, amounting to eleven specimens. He 
had evidently come across a colony of that insect, and made a 
hearty breakfast. I may state that this insect was in great abun- 
dance, during 1864, on the Island of Montreal. The same may be 
said of last summer, 1868; taking them by the score on the 
Mountain, also along the river at Hochelaga. 
The earlier you go out in the morning the better; before sun- 
rise, if possible, ere the process of digestion has gone too far. 
s are also very useful as collectors of insects, as may be 
seen by the following from one of the daily papers, being only 
one of many thousand examples :— 
BIRDS THE FARMER’S FRIENDS. — An intelligent yrim boy in e me oie a 
small flock of quails, commencing at one side of a cornfield, five rows 
regularly 1d. nd 
and taking another five ep until thinking they were pulling up the corn, he shot 
one and then examined the field. On the ground they had been over, he found but one 
stalk of corn disturbed, but in the quail’s crop he found one cut worm, twenty-one 
stri vine bugs, over a hundred chintz bugs that he could distinctly count, and a 
mass apparently consisting of hundreds of chintz bugs, but not one kernel of corn. 
During the a ee wiciidhy mare diodi Gane wae Oe 
chintz bug in g 
It will thus be seen, from what has been said regarding the 
habits of those humble animals, toads and birds, what great ser- 
