1078 Recent Studies of the Spade-foot Toad. {November, 
to be noticed. Of the specimens I had under examination, in an 
aquarium, about five per cent did not progress beyond the condi- 
tion in which all were in July 9. These “retarded” tadpoles 
proved to be voracious cannibals. They seized their more ma- 
tured companions by their tails and legs, swallowing the member 
and thus sustaining their own lives at the expense of their fellows. 
They generally killed their victim in the course of twenty-four 
hours, and often in less time, and then promptly seized another. So 
bloodthirsty were these few “retarded ” tadpoles that I was com- 
pelled to protect the lives of the little hoppers, their brethren, which 
now, in spite of stumps of tails, sat in frog-like fashion on their 
haunches, and were in all respects miniatures of the adult spade-foots 
thatin April and June made night hideous with their unearthly cries. 
Having tested several specimens, a few days previously, ane 
-their ability to assume the land-life of adult Scaphiopi, by placing 
them upon damp sand, and finding that they throve fairly well, 
on the 25th of July I removed the water in the aquarium and put 
in earth to about an inch in depth, and very carefully smoothed 
the surface. Upon this the young spade-foots were placed, 
in less than one minute many had commenced digging little bur- 
rows, into which they disappeared as the excavations deepen 
In all respects these burrows were like those made by adult 
spade-foots, oval in outline, oblique in direction, and generally 
with a slight angle in the course. In twenty minutes all but two, 
of forty-four specimens, were below the surface of the 
stratum I had placed in the aquarium. 
It now became monotonous in the extreme to watch then. 
Not a movement occurred that was other than might be expected 
of adult toads or frogs of any species. be 
I did not see them eat, but as only living food would M 
accepted by them, it was simply because minute insect life S 
not come within reach; but while yet in the water these 
Spade-foots found some food, as shown by the examination 0 bs 
stomachs and intestines of several specimens. Dr. A. C, sto a 
kindly made this examination, at my request, and reported fy 
follows: In the stomach of one was found fragments da. a 
and of a small moth, and in the intestine a mass of sand e 
cemented together by dark brown amorphous matter, e 
numerous rhizopods (Arcella) and several diatoms. Tn the s he 
ach of another a species of Thrips, and a few diatoms 19 
intestine 
