Toads are amphibians, the class of animals that spend their time as eggs and tadpoles underwater and the remainder of their lives on land. They are nocturnal hunters, catching insects and other small animals with long sticky tongues. They take shelter in cool locations during the day. You can find toads everywhere except the cold, polar regions of the world and Australia. Most toads are warty fellows protected from becoming the main course of larger animals by the poison glands behind their eyes that emit a milky substance when they are caught. Toads are chubby with shorter legs than frogs. Thus they walk more than hop. Toads have no teeth, (Recall Beatrix Potter's Mrs. Tittlemouse offering the toad, Mr. Jackson some cherry stones for dinner and he declines, “No teeth, no teeth, no teeth.”) One interesting fact is that toads and frogs both stem from the order anura. The toad family, bufonidae splits off from the frog family, ranidae. The family bufonidae, contains more than 300 species, the majority of these are toads of the genus bufo. Although the biology of a toad protects it from being eaten, it has no protection against pollution and the changes that global warming bring. All amphibians are very vulnerable to these assaults and could become extinct. Once upon a time, a long time ago the author was on a sailing vacation near Bayfield, Wisconsin. On those warm summer evenings when she went ashore she found the cold drink machine covered with insects attracted to the light. Sitting a foot in front of the machine was the largest toad she had ever seen. Every evening during her vacation she would again find the toad, sitting patiently, looking up toward the light—and lunch! She and the toad were on friendly terms and she would pluck a mayfly or other bug as a gift to the toad who consumed it immediately, though neglecting any show of gratitude. During the day the Toad was nowhere to be seen. She looked but never found him. After the vacation was over, she continued to be curious about the daytime whereabouts of her warty skinned friend. Her musings led to the writing of the poem, TOADS. Years later she would find an artist whose watercolors captured the wonder in those summer evenings, long ago.