s done much effective work along these lines, and
a Girl Scout should join this society, whose headquarters are 1974
Broadway, New York City.

Amphibians

_All nature is so full that that district produces
the greatest variety which is most examined._
--_Gilbert White, Natural History of Selborne._

The group of back-boned animals next above the fishes is the Amphibians,
which includes the frogs, toads, salamanders,[7] and their relatives.
The name "amphibian" refers to two modes of life as shown by most of the
frogs and toads. A good example is the Common Toad, whose eggs are laid
in the water. These eggs hatch out not into toads, but into tadpoles,
which have no legs and which breathe by means of gills, as the fishes
do. They grow rapidly, develop a pair of hind legs and then a pair of
front legs, while the tail and gills are absorbed, all within a little
more than a month from the time the eggs are laid. During this change a
pair of lungs is developed, so that the toads breathe air as human
beings do. The eggs of toads and frogs may be collected in the spring in
ponds, and this remarkable change from the egg through the tadpole stage
to the adult form may be observed in a simple home aquarium. Toads' eggs
may be distinguished from those of frogs by the fact that toads' eggs
are laid in strings, while frogs' eggs are laid in masses.

[Illustration: TOAD

A valuable animal in the garden because of the insects which it eats.
Range: Eastern United States. Photograph by Herbert Lang.]

Every Girl Scout should know the song of the toad. William Hamilton
Gibson says it is "the sweetest sound in nature." (_Sharp Eyes_, p. 54.)
If you do not know it, take a lantern or electric flash-lamp after dark
some evening in the spring at egg-laying time, and go to the edge of
some pond and see the toad sing. Notice how the throat is puffed out
while the note is being produced.

[Illustration: BULLFROG

The largest of our frogs, remarkable for its sonorous bass notes. Range:
Eastern United States westward to Kansas. Photograph by Herbert Lang.]

The belief that warts are caused by handling toads has no foundation in
fact.

The toad is a valuable friend of the gardener, for it feeds upon a great
variety of destructive insects.

The life of our Salamanders is very similar to that of the frogs and
toads. The eggs hatch out into tadpoles, then legs are developed, but
the tail is not absorbe