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THE YOUNG NATURALIST. 



porous nature, the smaller ones were dead, but two of the larger ones had 

 absolutely increased in size. This was evidently owing to the fact that the 

 the glass covers had been cracked, and minute insects had entered, and 

 formed the food pf the prisoners. The cracked glasses were replaced with 

 sound ones, and the block again buried for twelve months ; at the end of 

 that exhumed, and all the toads were dead. A parallel experiment was con- 

 ducted as follows : In an apple tree, three holes were cut ; in the largest, 

 two toads were placed, and one in each of the small cells. These holes were 

 then plugged up with wood, so as to exclude insects, and, apparently, air. 



At the end of twelve months every toad was dead, and the bodies very much 

 decayed. The results of these experiments seem to render it certain that no 

 toad, confined in a small cell, to which air has not access, can survive 1£ 

 months, They also prove that no toad can live two years without food. 



These experiments have been confirmed by competent observers, from 

 time to time, and their accuracy having been established, it would be the 

 merest cruelty to repeat them, just for the sake of refuting unsupported 

 assertions, that toads or frogs are ever found alive in materials deposited 

 millions of ages ago. 



The toad is not quite free from responsibility for its evil reputation, for 

 there are at the back of the head two large glands, and smaller ones on the 

 back, which secrete an acrid milky fluid, harmless in its character, though if 

 rubbed on a wound it would produce local irritation ; this slight offensive 

 property is the sole basis for attributing to the toad any venomous power. 

 Another factor in producing the disgust so generally felt for this animal, is 

 its power of inflating itself to nearly double its size, thus giving itself a rather 

 " uncanny " appearance. The acrid secretion referred to is undoubtedly a 

 protective development, since no dog will attack a toad a second time. If 

 he has once mouthed one, and tasted the secretion, which burns his tongue, 

 he will profit by the lesson and never seek for a repetition of it. The same 

 remarks apply to the ring snake, whose principle food is the common frog, 

 for it never touches a toad under any circumstances. This I have repeatedly 

 demonstrated, by attempting to starve tbese snakes into eating toads; giving 

 them no other food, but always with the same result. During August of last 

 year (1887), I observed a curious fact, illustrating the above statements. A 

 toad was crawling along, when suddenly a ring snake came across the path, 

 sufficiently near to alarm the toad which distinctly raised itself on its legs, 

 inflated its body, and turning half round, faced the snake, which promptly 

 beat a retreat, evidently profiting by the wisdom inherited from its fore- 

 fathers. 



Tne skin is cast several times during the summer, splitting down the back 



