No. 516] THE AMEBIC AN TOAD 



781 



Experiment No. I. 



An experiment on hibernation was begun October 8. 

 Holes twenty-eight inches deep were dug in three dif- 

 ferent localities. Into each hole was placed the four 

 sides of a 14 x 36 x 36 inch cage made of ^-inch-mesh wire 

 netting. Then the holes and cages were filled to the level 

 of the ground. Twenty toads were placed in each cage 

 and a wire covering sewed on, thus making an enclosure 

 without bottom, filled with soft earth and with a free 

 space of eight inches between the ground and the top. 



Cage A was placed on an exposed north slope of a hill 

 beneath two pines. The slope at this point was prob- 

 ably 20°, therefore no water stood in or about the cage. 

 The ground here is at least two thirds sand and gravel. 

 Little protection was furnished by the pines, since their 

 lowest branches were twelve to fifteen feet above the 

 ground. 



Cage B was located in a dry, well-sheltered place under 

 the drooping branches of some spruces on a hill-side fac- 

 ing the east. So well was it protected that the sun never 

 reached it and very little rain or snow. The ground at 

 this point is a sandy clay. 



Cage C was sunk under a maple tree in a place not 

 more than four feet above the water in a near-by pond. 

 No protection was furnished by the maple. Ashes, sand 

 and loam in about equal parts composed the soil at this 

 place. 



The toads for this experiment were collected from the 

 fourth to eighth of October. Each was weighed and 

 marked by cutting off a toe. Those in A were put out 

 the eighth of October and those in B and C the following 

 day. One to several toads were found out of the earth 

 in one or all the cages until November 26 with the ex- 

 ception of the twenty-ninth of October. My notes show 

 a very slight tendency for those in cage A to hibernate 

 before those of B and C. 



After the twenty-sixth of November nothing was seen 



