The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1892-08-13

disappears In his mouth. sharp clicking
sound accompanies this, but whether it is
the SOUL q of the swift tongue or the smack
of the closing mouth l cannot say. If the
insect thrown TO him falls without life or
motion on the floor he will not touch IL.
But if with stick l move it he instantly
takes it.
Night after night be has come and made
himself a. home. A little timid at first aud
inclined TO move away If | approached him,
he 5000 lost all fear and now relies on the
kindness with which he has been treated.
Twice when there was no light on the
piazza table, he has gone around the corner
TO the open door, come in and taken his
stand in the middle Of the room, looking up
expectsnt. Each rme l have taken him
up in my butterfly net, carried him out and
deposited him on the piazza. Instead OF
being angered or frightened at this treat
ment, each time. Immediately on being
dumped out Of the net, he turned
toward me looking his request for
supper, and at once accepted the moths
threw to him. One evening he came, bring
ing friend, apparently young friend. 1t
was ludicrous 10 see these two grotesque
animals emerge from the gloom at the end
of the piazza and come with slow, ponder
GUS leaps into the bright light The new
conner was smaller end was tlmid, and hung
little back. Had he been invited by his
companion to go with him and get good
the old fellow9 There was no indication Of
any intercommuuication Of ideas between
them. The older one took his grub as usual and
enjoyed it. The younger declined ali offers,
looked on but would not eat, and fled when
approached. Ifancied the large fas fellow
looked with contempt at this cowardice, for
he did not stir, even when footstep ap-
preached within an inch or two of his nose.
By way of trying the capacity OF his
mouth, throat and stomach, one evening,
after had given him eight or ten medium
sized moths, l threw him a large sphinx
moth (daremma) whose body was nearly
two inches long and a half inch
in average thickness, with wings
spreading over four inches. He took
this head first. an ! as he shut his jaw on
it the wings spread out on each side of his
mouth. Evidently he was somewhat sur
prised, for he paused and considered the
situation. The pause lasted about sixty
seconds. Then he made convulsive effort,
repeated three or for times, to swallow his
prey, but without success. Another longer
pause; then his two forefeet went actively
at work, but whether to drag out or force
in the choking mouthful could not affirm.
1t was probably the latter, for after several
pauses and renewed struggles the wings
suddenly disappeared and he had swallowed
the moth. l Immediately threw him large
virgo moth and he seized and swallowed it.
as also three more In sue session.
There is no animal. which seems to excite
| more general disgust than the TOAD. This
| is probably due to literature, which has in
many cases given evil regulations to animals
| not deserving such SANDER. The toad Is
neither ugly nor venomous. He is not
attractive in appearance, but his eye is very
| beautiful, the only jewel he carries In his
| head. He ought not to be considered 50
reDulsive as he is. The wise gardener is his
friend, for ne is foe to all insects which
injure low-gro wing plants. In some coun-
tries gardeners pay boys for toads. which
| they keep in their hotbed frames and
gardens. They are long-lived animals. 1t
has been stated on good authority that one
| was kept under observation for forty years.
There Is no satisfactory authority for the
often repeated story Of the finding OF living
| toads in solid rock. Undoubted there have
been many cases In which quarrymen have
| discovered toads among the fragments after
blasting, or other violent disruption Of rock.
| But there has been no instance recorded in
| which it could be affirmed that the animal
| might not have fallen into the debris, or
| that the cavity had not, by rift or other
| wise communication with the outer world.
| The experiments of the well-known nat
uralist auckland conducted with great care
TO try how long toads would live in alright
| boxes, buried in the ground, or elsewhere,
failed to show any remarkable power Of
endurance.
Within the past week the familiar story
Of shower of frogs is again going the
rounds. Ii Is not impossible that cyclone
storms may lift water with its animal life
and scatter it ats distance. But the
origin OF these stories is usually the dis
| covery Of large numbers of small batraohians
suddenly appearing on the ground, in roads
and elsewhere 1t is not strange that those
who are unfamiliar with the life history Of
the animals should be astonished at the
| md in,
sometimes make their appearance. 1t will
usually, if not always, be found that the
animals are small toads, not frogs.
Toads, like frogs, deposit their spawn, or
eggs, in water. This is in May and juno.
The number OF eggs is enormous. They
hatch, and the tadpcles Of the toad so
nearly resemble those OF the frog that the
majority Of persons who see them suppose
them to be the young of frogs. But they
are smaller and generally almost jet black.
These toad tndpoles collect in great masses
at the edge of pool or lake, in warm
water. IL is common to see them in such
dense crowds that it is literally true that
one may dip them out in a basin
and the basin will contain at each dip moro
tadpoles than water As the time APP
proaches In July or August for these tadpoles
to transform into toads and 90 ashore for
life on land, they crowd up to the water
edge, the other masses pushing the inner
| ones 20 Gne lanu. LII Is q blXub WOrLu seeluB
to watch this proceeding in a hot sunshine.
They are Kidding themselves of their tails,
and getting their feet and legs. In the
water are thousands on thousands of the
tailed tadpoles, while from the edge Of the
water, up the dry land, go thousands on
their newly acquired legs, complete toads.
The sharp edge of the water is the boundary
line between the two lives. l have often
watched professions OF these young toads
thus going inland from the edge of water
| by the thousand
Now Immediately after such an emery
ing Of young toads you will find them scat
tered over the roads and open ground for
half mile or more from the water on
which they were born. Their coming is so
sudden, and in countless numbers that peo-
pie imagine them to have fallen from the
clouds. Their activity, their rapid motion
in all directions, arrest attention. They
have, in fact, come from some wet place,
swamp, pond, lake or hollow. They per-
haps emerged from their water life in the
hot sunshine which preceded the thunder
storm in which people imagined they had
fallen.
= There is very simple method Of testing
the question whether the small toads thus
seen in quantities have indeed fallen from
the clouds Search the roofs of houses. II
they trained down" you will find them up
there. II you find them only on the ground