OFFICIAL ORGAN OF THE WISCONSIN AND ILLINOIS AUDUBON SOCIETIES. 
One Year 2 5 Cents _ _ Single Copy 5 Cents 
Published by the Wisconsin Audubon Society at Appleton, Wisconsin 
Entered as second class matter, May 16, 1904, at Appleton, Wis., under the act of Congress of Mar, 3. ’79. 
VOL. XL DECEM3ER, 1908. No. 6 
THE TRUTH ABOUT TOADS. 
Very few people realize the value of 
the toad. Very few people know much 
about it—and the most of what they do 
know is not true. Toads do not bring 
warts on your hands if you handle them. 
They do not “rain down,” even tho the 
little fellows, not much bigger than a 
rain-drop, are very plentiful right after 
of his chief enemies. Dr. Hodge writes 
of finding two hundred dead or mangled 
toads in a pond. He learned, subse¬ 
quently, that the two boys who had killed 
them had filled a milk can with three 
hundred others and dumped them on a 
man’s door-step. English gardeners have 
estimated the value of toads at about 
| fe 
l 
a shower. They are not “ugly and ven¬ 
omous” hut they do “wear a lovely jewel 
in their heads,” placed there, however, 
bv nature and used to see through. Toads 
are not hideous after a little intelligent 
j study. What coloration could the toad 
adopt that would conceal him better 
from his numerous enemies? There are 
owls and ducks and snakes and other 
animals that appreciate the food value 
of the toads. 
Mankind, or rather boy-unkind, is one 
$17.00 annually. It is estimated that 
insects cause an annual loss of $300,000,- 
000 to $400,000,000. Take away the 
checks, of which birds and toads are the 
chief, and it is doubtful if any vegetation 
could exist. Then those two boys 
caused an annual loss of $8,500 a share of 
which, no doubt, fell on their parents. 
Would children behave so unreasonably 
if their elders did not look upon these 
valuable allies as “ugly disgusting creat¬ 
ures?” 
