"First, then, the toad is larger and more clumsily built than the frog. Its legs too are shorter, so that it cannot leap so far as the frog. The frog"s hind legs are usually quite four inches long, and he leaps with these long legs. The toad"s leap is only a very short jump. It is slow and awkward in its movements. The toad"s feet are not webbed, so that it is not such a good swimmer as the frog. It lives mostly on land, and goes to the water only in the spring to lay its eggs.""Then, too," said Will, "it is easy to tell a toad from a frog by the look of its skin. A frog has a smooth skin, but a toad"s skin looks as if it were covered with thick warts or pimples. The frog"s skin is either agreenish-yellow or brown above, and yellowish- white on the under parts. The general color of the toad"s warty skin is a blackish-gray, with an olive- green tint. The under parts are yellow. Frogs and toads both have moist skins, but the toad can throw out over its skin a white liquid which has a most unpleasant smell.""Many people used to say," said Fred, "that this liquid was a deadly poison, and because of that, no poor animal has been so cruelly treated as the toad. It is not poisonous, but it will make the tender skin smart if it touches it, and even a dog will quickly drop a toad if he takes one up in his mouth. I saw old Ponto do it once, and didn"t he howl and shake himself.""The frog has teeth in the upper jaw," said Will, "but the toad has no teeth at all. It has, however, a pair of well-grown ears, which the frog never has.
