No. 516] THE AMERICAN TOAD 



739 



"Crows, grackles and several species of ducks and 

 herons/' writes A. K. Fisher, of the Biological Survey, 

 "are known to feed on small frogs and tadpoles, and un- 

 doubtedly do not discriminate in favor of toads." He 

 presents further evidence to prove that the screech owl 

 must be considered as a destroyer of toads. By stomach 

 examinations of a 'number of crows, W. B. Burrows finds 

 that the toad is a common article of food. Young par- 

 tridges were tested on this point. They eagerly picked up 

 the little toads, thereby killing them, but usually refused 

 to eat them. Miss M. Morse reports the quail as feeding 

 on young toads. As for predatory birds, the toad is an 

 agreeable morsel of food. Mr. Fisher writes me that 

 he has observed the broad-winged hawk feeding on toads 

 while the latter were spawning. He also found " five 

 stomachs of the red-tailed hawk, eight of the red-shoul- 

 dered hawk, and five of the broad-winged hawk which 

 contained the remains of toads. ' ' From the observations 

 of Mr. F. H. Mosher, he states that "the marsh hawk is 

 one of the worst enemies of the toad, destroying large 

 numbers of them during the spawning season." He 

 also states on the same authority that a toad was found 

 in the nest of a Cooper's hawk. 



Skunks and raccoons are the only mammals reported 

 as feeding upon toads. Mr. E. H. Short writes that in 

 his locality skunks destroy great numbers in the late fall, 

 and that he found in October, 1904, the remains of seven 

 toads which had been killed in one night (by a skunk?). 

 His evidence on this point does not seem conclusive. 

 Concerning raccoons, Dr. H. B. Davis occasionally feeds 

 toads to those he has in confinement. 



Professor Surface records twenty-seven species and 

 varieties of serpents from Pennsylvania, of which ten 

 feed on toads, and two others are suspected. The feed- 

 ing habits of some of these have not yet been deter- 

 mined and it may be found that part of them use the 

 toad as food. Toads constitute 4H, 20, 16 and 15 per 

 cent, of the food, respectively, of the spreading adder 



