The Savannah morning news., 1901-07-07
STRANGE LIFE OF A TOAD.
o,r,NG ADVENTURES IN 1T AND
SOME ROMANCE, TOO.

-. Won Read AbOut-Farm Ira
Of the Creature-A Toad
,,r.b a Human COmpanion-Queer
so,es of Toads the world over.
From the New York Sun.
,,.,ds are like some girls. Like Mary
~, for instance of whom people say:
',,o Mary isn't pretty. Her best friend
,,,,,,t call her pretty; but she's so
good-hearted"
1rs.+ ia the way with the Ntoad Even
Let friend-and, If you please, 1t has
,,, ~ friends-doesn't pretend that
:. has the fatal gift of beauty. But it
:. usefuI good-hearted lite beast and,
.o+ doesn't often go with usefulness
md poodheartedness, its career reeks OF
NANCE. Annual love feasts, strange
.-a,sformations, clever campaigns for
- weird and violent forms of death
-, .b5s and much else that is fascinating
is n be found in the career of the toad
family.
nrorr is the very season of the annual
lava feast. If you live outside of the
o,jos YOU may hear the sound of it.
Tbe whole countryside echoes with
shrir whistling trill. That is the love
snng of the toad. DON'T confuse 1t with
The more cultural vespers of the frog.
,rt-ere's as much difference between them
os there is between a penny Whlstle ana
q steam caIllope.
oniy Love. in fact makes him do vari-
ms strange things-strange to his usual
.,-,y of living. 1t is only when the ten
Az nassion grips him that he takes TO
+he water. He does it then. If he is
toad of an ardent nature he finds him
self one of the first group of love-slck
ones on the shore of some little pond;
not big pond, nor river, nor a lake
inst cosey, sociable little pool not much
bisger than a hall bedroom.
The first arrivals at the pool lose no
ting IN whistling for all the toads within
hns15ne 10 come and joint the feast, and
nsght after night the olans gather while
the skiring, bagpipe music goes gayly
FINALLY comes the important time when
the spawn is deposited. There are so
many millions of eggs that 1t seems as
y there wouldn't be room on the earth
for anything but toads If they should
al hatch out. Luckily they don't and
vet one of these little hall-bedroom pools
ie often fairly black with tadpoles, each
v-iseling ambitiously toward toadhood.
The toad tadpole Is very different from
the frog tadpole. II is smaller and of
a modest sober black. The frog tadpole
is about twice the size of his toad cous-
in and is notified with brown and cream
color and olive green. The incipient toads
live out the first stage of their eventful
career rubbering around-the phrase
should have been dedicated to the tad
pole-in their native pond. They are
vegetarians, browsing on the vegetable
slime which grows in stagnant water.
1t takes a good deal of hard digestive
work to change vegetable food into ami
mai tadpole Consequently at this epoch
of a toad's life his digestive organs are
several times as long as the tadpole
himself The first indication he gives of
a leaning toward animal food is when he
begins to eat his own tail. He doesn't
turn around and nibble his tail. He alb
serbs it into the rest of his body until
finally he has taken it all up and has
put out legs instead.
With legs comes a spirit of adventure
Men long to visit Mars or the Moon. The
toad has the same restless desire to ex-
plore-and does. That is. if he lives long
enough Talk of infant mortality! The
toad census presents the most appalling
figures. All spring seasons are not so
wet as the one in this year of grace 1901.
Other springs have droughts when pools
dry up while the troops of tadpoles there
in are still flirting their tails around
without dreaming of legs. Perhaps it is
not necessary to explain that when a
pool does dry up the tadpole population
follows the example and dries up too.
very respectable number of tadpoles,
however, escape these commissions of ma
ture and arrive at the dignity of legs.
Then the pool may come to any pass it
pIeases The tadpole is toad and am
phibious. Occasionally queer thing hap
pens. A wild windstorm comes along just
as pondful of toadlets are hesitating be-
tween water and land. The wind picks W
the shallow pool, toads and ALL and
Whirls it up and away, scattering the
toads as it goes. Then the Suns corre-
spondent conscientiously telegraphs that
his particular town had "a shower of
toads to-day" Which is the truth, but
not the whole truth
Another cause for this visitation of
toads after a hard rain is plain. They are
Just ready to take that fateful step to-
ward the life of a landlubber, but are
sui dallying in the cool pond, when a
Dig rain comes. The dry land is dry no
longer, and all the little toads hop out
upon 1t with alacrity and go two-steppng
ABOUT before the eyes of man. Then the
toads.
Al this stage Of their career they are
ABOUT the size of your finger nail That
~ sufiiciently elastic statement to cover
the VIBRATIONS in the size of young toeds.
but whether they are the size of big
nhser nail or of a little finger nail they
are no longer simple browsers upon gar
Gen truck. They become hunters now and
shrewd ones too
Nolhe women are supposed to be rather
expert IN the use of their tongues. The
.odd beats them. Instead of the tongue
pelhs fastened at the back Of the toad's
mouth, it is attached just behind the
neeth with the tip toward the throat.
inns arrangement might not be favorable
10 talking but It is wonder when 1t
comes 20 catching flies. Especially when
lhe tongue happens to be elastic and with
muelage on the end
sometimes a toad comes upon one OF
nose exciting ant professions across a
pm When a whole ant village gets to
Suasng madly back and forth, perform
ns prodlgies in the line OF absolutely
Ilouc industry. But that's another story.
Inc part the toad plays in the affair is
~ no means idotic and scarcely indus
sl.ouS except as regards that wrong-end-
foremost tongue.
WIN sigh OF supreme content the
soau sits down beside this skurrying pro-
SsS'oh and eats till the cows come home.
"a ana out, with the lightning flash of
n s shuttle In loom, flies that accom-
p'sH'u tongue and every time It filps back
very surprised ant ooae NTH a. rrhte