A TOAD’S TONGUE.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume VIII, Issue 42, 17 October 1891, Page 498

A TOAD’S TONGUE.

HOW IT IS USED TO CATCH THE UNSUSPECTING FLY TO FEED THE TOAD. The toad, which is one product of the tadpole, has some wonderful peculiarities. Did you ever see this clumsy and rather lazy-looking hopper in the act of catching a fly ? He darts his tongue out several inches, so quickly that you can hardly see it, and with all its activity the fly hasn’t the ghost of a chance to escape. How does the toad do this ? You may have heard the saying that a termagant’s tongue is hung in the middle and thus wags at both ends. In the case of the toad the tongue is hung exactly the reverse of the human tongue, that is to say, the fastening is at the front of the jaw, while the loose end hangs backward to the throat. Now, when the lazy toad sights a fly he works his way up to it slowly until he gets within range for his tongue-shooter. Then he suddenly opens his mouth, the tongue flies out like a line from a fishing-pole, it strikes the fly and a glutinous substance on the tongue holds the victim until it is dumped into the toad’s capacious mouth. Another strange thing about the toad is that if its mouth be kept open the animal will suffocate. This is because it has no ribs and no means of dilating its chest, and therefore it must swallow air as it swallows food. If its mouth be forcibly kept open the air will pass to the stomach instead of entering the lungs. There is one variety of toad that has no tongue at all. It inhabits dark places in Guiana and Surinam. The way in which the eggs of this animal are hatched is as wonderful as its lingual peculiarity. The male toad places the eggs in little pits on the back of his spouse and affixes a lid for each pit. Then the female goes about her household duties something in the style of an Indian squaw with a papoose strapped upon her back. After some days little toaalets are hatched from the eggs on the maternal back, and when they are strong enough they force the lids off the pits and hop out.