The Savannah morning news., 1901-07-07


very Juvenile farming mind, quails at a
death penalty which works both ways.
This strange influence which the toad
is supposed to have upon the COW is sub
Stimulated by another rural tradition.
When COW lies around in a discounted.
mopish way and refuses to eat, the far
mer says she has lost her cud. More mys-
terry! How or where she has lost her cud
Is not clear, but one thing is to the far
mer. To help her to get her cud back
again live toad must be put down her
throat. Speaking not from the farmers
point of view, it is highly probable that if
the COW lives through the toad treatment
she will be only too glad to eat something
of less extraordinary character and the
farmer will then be convinced that he did
the right thing.
Although the toad is not much thought
or IN art or literature it is quite a favorite
in scientific circles A good manv SIN
dents of natural history let toads do some
OF their collecting. The reward of the toad
Is death, but there are others who have
lost their lives in the service of science.
The way of the toad's end is this: The
natural history man catches the toad
early in the morning, kills it and adds
10 MS collection any rare bugs or beetles
Whlch are IN the toad's stomach. Rather
p1ratical, of course, but the cause of
science covers a multitude of sins.
Aside from the man of science and the
commissions of nature which threaten the
toaos tadpole days, 1t has another en-
envy. The snake is the villain that al
ways pursues it, AS the toad goes
blithely through the grass the snake
suddenly strikes it. Now a snakes
teeth point backward, just as the toad
tongue does. When those teeth have
once. closed upon the toad there is no
escape, and so, inch by inch, and quarter
inch by quarter-inch, it is worked down
the snakes anatomy,
Arrived at the real interior of the snake
the toad is often alive yet. If it is a.
big toad and the snake is a little snake
the strange spectacle may be seen of a
snake hoped as it were, by the toad In
side of it.
Sometimes a snake tries to swallow a
toad which is too big for it, and they
both die a miserable death. Sometimes a
toad is swallowed by a snake, but only
to a point where one end of it begins
to be digested. Before the rest of the
toad gets within range of the digestive
process the snake concludes that it wants
another sort of diet, and it dsgorged
somewhat damaged toad
Speaking of the toad's eeating its own
tail, 1T has still another thrifty habit
Occasionally the toad, like most other
animals, sheds it skin. When the time
for this moulting episode has come the
toad reaches around and scratches it's
back until it has broken the old skin
Then it takes hold of the edges and tugs
and pulls until it has peeled It's sl..n righs
off, legs and all, just as a woman peels
off a pair of gloves, turning them wrong
side out as she does it.
But the toad, thrifty soul that it Is
does not stop there. 1t rolls its skin up
into neat little bundle and eats it,
Occasionally a toad may be seen with
the fingers of its quondam skin hang
ing out of its mouth.
To go back to the wart tradition. The
toad must be declared innocent of this
charge. Because it has warts itself is
no sign that it will give them to any
body else. It's own warts are somewhat
horny protuberances intended to make. it
an unpleasant morsel if any animal I'M
dertakes to swallow it.
The toad has a lot of glands under It's
skin which are supplied with an irritating
fluid. 1t is possible that small boys have
felt the effects of this fluid. If you
should toss pieces of cracker to a dog
and then without stopping toss him a
toad-which, of course, you would not do.
but which other persons have done-the
dog will roll in the grass and give every
indication of being in acute pain. Again
it is doubtless the effects of this irritat-
ing fluid.
All this is in the life of Just the COM
mon toad. There's another kind occa-
sionally seen in these parts. 1t is called
the spade-foot toad and has a sort of
spur or pick, on its hind feet so that
it burrows with ease and rapidity. 1t
lives underground most of the time, ten
or fifteen years sometimes elapsing with
out any of them being seen. The COM
mon toad burrows, too, and in winter hi
bernates below ground.
Perhaps the queerest of all toads lives
down in South America. The Surinam
toad, it is called. When the female has
deposited the mass of eggs the male
takes them and rubs them into the back
of his spouse He literally rubs them in,
so that the skin is irritated and grows
up around them. There they stay until
they become tiny toads. In the mean
time the little cells in which they have
| been resting have developed lids or COW
ers. and, at the proper time, the little
toads lift these covers and hop out.
Among the vicissitudes which overtake
the careless toad is that of failing into
| cellars, wells and other undesirable places.
| A toad does not choose to live in a cell
| lar, especially in springtime when he
| can hear the refrain of the whistling cho-
| rus at some pool in the neighborhqod.
! Still, tire writer knows of one toad that
| did live in a cellar ana even Iell IN loNe
| down there.
| 1t was for the mistress of the house
| that the toad conceived tender affection.
! She was a good. old-fashioned housekeep-
er, was the mistress, and she used to go
| down there to arrange her preserves and
| canned things on the swinging she'll The
toad watched her critically at first, then
| approved of her, then loved her.
1T always hoped out of the shadows
| and sat beside her while she worked.
| Sometimes she would go to the cellar
| stairs and sit down and call to 1T. Inva-
! riably it hoped up the steps and sat
upon the hem of her gown and looked at
her with bright, affectionate eyes. 1t
would sit there as long as she would stay,
but it never came out of its hiding place
for anybody else.
The proprietor Of a Southern hotel tells
| OF toad that always comes up on his
| veranda at night and sits in the circle OF
| light under the electric lamp, catching
| the insects that fall there. The guests OF
the hotel, gathered just outside the circle
of light, laugh and talk and often make
| a good deal of noise. But the toad doesn
seem to mind it. Occasionally the cat
| comes around and leases 1t a little, cuff
fling it now and then. but 1t stands its
ground as 1t has stood 1t for months and
| months.
There Is one toad problem about which
the evidence is contradictory. A woman
| 4,r1e bo ryfr RI In a