The Curious Thing About Toads

For about a week Hyla the tree frog announced the advent of Spring from the monkey-puzzle

tree outside my window, and then there was no more of "scratch-it." Now the Guadalupe Creek has its bed and its puddles about a mile from my window, monkey-puzzle tree and ivy vine. At first thought there should seem to be no connection or significance in this fact. But an evening or two after Hyla regilla ceased saying "scratch-it" by the window I hunted out the Guadalupe with its bed and its puddles. Hyla was there sure enough, saying "scratch-it" louder than ever and, what's more, it seemed that ten thousand other Hylas had come down, too, so terrific was the hubbub. It's a curious thing about toads and tree frogs, this spring clamor and searching for water. For eleven months in the year the ivy vine was good enough, but spring with alder catkins makes a tremendous difference. Here Hyla had gone more than a mile that he might find water to say "scratch-it" in wet bliss. And a mile to a midget the size of the last joint on your thumb is equivalent to many, many miles for a human traveler. Yet Nature works in a reasonableness for the most part. Toads, salamanders and frogs, including most Hylas, have never succeeded in getting themselves entirely out of the water. Whatever they may do, grown up, with the major part of their time, most of them must once a year find water wherein to find mates who will lay eggs that produce tadpoles. The tadpoles stay in the water for some weeks; then they grow up, lose their tails, leave the water and hunt around to find, perhaps, an ivy vine beneath a monkey-puzzle tree just like their fathers before them. However, to come back to the grown-up Hyla regilla who had hopped a mile to the puddles of the Guadalupe. We found him, or one that looked so much like him it didn't matter, and most amazing he appeared! All green he was in the ivy vine for there his surroundings were green. But here he was dirt brown with curious checker markings and he looked so much like the mud he sprawled upon that our best flashlight methods of picture taking were none too good in showing him. This ability to use the color that suits, whether it be brown with black spots or all brown or all gray or all bright green, is one of Hyla's most wonderful qualities.

The Curious Thing About Toads

By: David Bunch

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