HOUSE AND GARDEN 
May, 1914 
The sucker-like pads on the fingers and toes of the tree toad permit him to cling 
even to the face of a piece of glass 
phibian assistants. We carefully classified the contents of one 
stomach, and the result follows: 127 ants, 11 small beetles, 9 
grubs of various kinds, and an assortment of gnats, and the 
like, to comfort¬ 
ably round out 
this bristling as¬ 
sortment. 
The story of the 
toad producing 
warts is a mere 
fallacy, but 
Shakespe are’s 
much-ridiculed al¬ 
lusion to its poison 
is close to the 
truth. In the warty- 
looking protuber¬ 
ances of the toad’s 
body, and particu¬ 
larly in the glan¬ 
dular swellings be¬ 
hind the eyes, is a 
milky fluid of de¬ 
cidedly poisonous 
nature, though not 
at all dangerous in 
the mere handling 
of a toad. How¬ 
ever, it is well to 
explain that if this 
fluid should b e 
exuded through 
rough handling and reaches the eyes, it causes intense irritation. 
Through accident, the writer has discovered that it is exceedingly 
bitter, and very little of it tends to paralyze the muscles of the 
tongue. With young toads the secretion does not ap¬ 
pear to be powerful. Spme of the frog-eating snakes 
can never be induced tq eat a toad. Strangely enough, 
there are some snakes that prefer large toads to any 
other prey, being quite immune to the poison. The 
dog that unwisely seizes a toad does so for the last 
time. Its lesson is severe and long remembered. An 
immediate and high state of inflammation attacks the 
A leopard frog, when full grown, is a very beautiful creature if you stop to examine 
him. The irregular spots give him his name 
mouth parts, and the salivary secretions quickly flow and become 
frothy from the animal's agony. Many an unfortunate dog, thus 
receiving his introduction to the peaceful toad, has dashed along 
the country road 
with foaming jaws 
and staring eyes, 
causing wayfarers 
to flee in terror. 
And there are 
other toads besides 
the common gar¬ 
den species, though 
w e seldom 0 r 
never see them. 
One of these is the 
spade-toad, a real- 
1 y subterraneous 
species of common 
occurrence. From 
point of species, 
however, there are 
more frogs than 
toads, and in our 
nearby countryside 
there are usually 
five or six distinct 
kinds to be found. 
While frogs are 
largely insect eat¬ 
ers, they are not so 
valuable to man as 
toads, as they do 
not prowl and hunt over a large area, like the former. 
In damp, cool forests we may come across a very beautiful 
little frog of golden bronze, with a large chestnut blotch behind 
each eye. This is the wood frog, which differs from 
his immediate relatives in seeking the water only dur¬ 
ing the breeding season. The tadpoles of this attract¬ 
ive frog are strangely beautiful in coloration. Above 
they are lustrous, pitch black, while beneath they ap¬ 
pear like a shining globule packed with coarse grains 
of gold. The wood frog leads a useful life in destroy- 
(Continued on page 422) 
"fc' ‘ 
In the frog chorus the loudest, deepest note comes from the bull frog, and he is king in the frog family. He is 
a veritable monster, for he even preys upon animals. This is one just completing the violent struggle of 
swallowing a chick 
