The Savannah morning news., 1904-11-07
THE TOAD Is A
V0RACI0US GOURMAND.
Ants, CutvOrms and Honey Bees n
FaVOrite Diet but He Destroys
Garden Pests.


FavOrite Diet. but He Destroys
Garden Pests.
From the New York Evening Mail.
According to a recent bulletin issued
by the national government the toad
is a gross feeder. He sallies forth
usually after shutdown in search of his
prey, which includes pretty nearly
every variety of insect and worm. and
| experiment proves that in twenty-four
hours he will consume insect food of
a volume fourfold the capacity of his
stomach-in other words he can fill
up four times. OF angle worms he
i does not seem very fond, though his
gluttonous habit extends to them if
they are too temptingly abundant, as
after the earth has had a good wet
ting. -
Ants appear to be his chief delight.
with cutworms and ACKNOWLEDGMENT
next in order. Then come caterpillars
and beetles. Grasshoppers and crick-
cts furnish but small part of his bill
of fare. and spiders still less. He has
no use, apparently, for dead prey; but
when an insect or worm comes near
him in motion he makes for it eagerly.
A cutworm which has discretion
enough when in his neighborhood, to
keep curled up, may easily escape; but
as soon as it begins to crawl, let 1t be-
ware.
His method of capturing a bug is to
dart out his tongue, which, by the way,
reverses the usual order of nature, it
being fastened in front and loose be-
hind. 1t is coated with a geatinous
secretion, and when it strikes an OBJ
ject it fastens firmly to it and conveys
it into the toad's mouth. If the OBJ
ject, like a big worm. for instance, is
too large to go unassisted into his gull
let, he uses his forepaws, like a greedy
! child, to stuff it down.
Most of the viands which the toad
loves are, in their living state, pests
of the farm and garden. 1t is hard to
say just where to place ants in this
| classification. Nearly all students of
nature, as well as persons who have
nothing but the traditions of their
| childhood to guide their judgment,
have acquired a certain affection for
! the ant. It's seeming intelligence, its
artistic or mechanical instinct. its I'M
| firing industry, its courage. its care
| for it's dead and wounded, its nice do
nestle economy and its habit of pro-
viding against the rainy day." all
| tend to give 1t sort Of human claim
| upon mankind.
Still. the fact cannot be ignored
| that the ant is an active disturber of
plant lice; that il destroys lawns,
spoils garden walks, infests dwellings
| and makes itself common nuisance
| in the kitchen and pantry, driving the
| dainty housewife almost to distrac-
ton. In the same category with
ants, as to human regard, might be
placed honey bees, which the toad
will eat when he gets good chance.
one Of his tricks is to station him
self at the entrance to a hive and
capture the belated home-comers. As
the toad does not spring into the air
for his food, however, any apiarist
NAV avoid this danger by raising his
hives well above the ground.
Reference has been made TO the
| toad's consumption of food as being
out of proportion to MS Duik. But
what he can actually do at a sitting
Is best told by figures derived from
exneriment. His official record shows
one case where he ate ninety rosebugs,
without being satisfied; another where
| he snapped up eight-six house flies in
loss than ten minutes. In one toad's
stomach were found seventy-seven
acknowledged worms; IN another
sixty-five gypsy moth caterpillars: IN
another fifty-flve army worms ana so
on. 1T, A.. ar,
his stomach four time in twenty-four
hours Il requires simple mathemat-
teal calculation TO discover how many
! ~ each variety OF winged or crawling
pest single toad might get away
with in a day If he kept at II ana
the conditions were favorable, and
multiplying this product by ninety, as
representing the days IN su UNI a,.i..
for Mr.. Toad is no respecter Oh sui 80.
measure MS
nofentIal capacity for good as the
, s...aopor'e friend.