No. 515] 



Tilt: AM ERIC AX TOAD 



667 



without feeding. In other words, a toad refuses food on 

 36.9 per cent, of the days. Therefore instead of a toad 

 filling its stomach four times in twenty-four hours, accord- 

 ing to Kirkland, it may eat (probably fill its stomach) 

 once in a day and a half. The average amount eaten per 

 toad per day in these 260 days is 1.12 g. The average 

 weight of the toads is 36.6 grams, which is about the 

 weight of the largest males or of a medium-sized female. 



These feeding tests show that the amount eaten at one 

 feeding compares very closely with the stomach contents 

 as recorded by Garmann, Hartman, and Kirkland. Fur- 

 thermore they demonstrate: (1) That the stomach of a 

 toad is not a rubber bag with an unlimited capacity as 

 commonly supposed; (2) that the toad when feeding, if 

 food is abundant, soon fills its stomach; (3) that toads 

 do not feed every day. This was suspected, since toads 

 are seen in greater numbers on rainy nights. 



Usually as soon as the toads fed they buried them- 

 selves and remained so from one to ten days. Sometimes 

 their eyes and nostrils were left exposed. Even so, in- 

 sects placed in their cages usually failed to tempt them 

 to leave their burrows. 



If we take the mean, 36.6 grains, as an average sized 

 toad, we find that it eats on an average, 26 insects or 1.12 

 grams per day. Counting May, .lime, .July and August 

 as a toad's feeding months, it will eat in this time some 

 3,200 insects, or 134.4 grams. 



To estimate the value of a toad's work in dollars and 

 cents is rather difficult, since the toad eats beneficial as 

 well as harmful insects. Garman from his data does not 

 hesitate to class the toad with useful animals, yet he would 

 not have us overlook the number of beneficial insects 

 eaten. According to Kirkland eleven per cent, of its food 

 consists of insects directly or indirectly valuable to man 

 and eighty per cent, is either directly injurious or ob- 

 noxious. He computes on the data previously given 

 of a stomach content that a toad is worth $19.88 per year 

 for the cutworms alone which it destroys. He assumes 

 that a toad fills its stomach four times a day with 6 cut- 



