Rensselaer Standard, Volume 1, Number 8, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 9 August 1879 — A Queer Pet. [ARTICLE]

A Queer Pet.

From the Virginia (Nev.) Enterprise. Tom Jackson, of this city, - has a trained horned toad, which is quite a curiosity. It is as tame asa kitten, and in a quiet way, is full of fun. Mrs. Jackson has trained the little fellow to stand erect upon his hind feet, to stand on his head—steadying himself with his forepaws—to turn over on his hack and sham dead, and to do quite a number of similar tricks. Tom says he thinks she will soon have the toad trained to play the jewsharp quite as well as the average Pibte musician. The toad is fed on flies and similar insects, but is also very fond of milk, which it drinks from a spoon. Although always called a homed toad or homed frog In this country, the little beast is a lizard. Naturalists call it an iguanian lizard of the genus phrynosoma. Our mountaineers, who are often quite as close observed of every liviug thing met with in the wilds as any naturalist, speak of a thing characteristic of the horned toad that we have ne\»er seen mentioned by any of the scientists. It is that when the female is teased by a* dog it ejects two small streams or slender threads of blood—at least a red liquid resembling blood. The liquid is sported to the distance of nearly two feet, and with considerable force. The liquid is evidently provided the Uttle animal as a means of defense against foxes, wolves and,, such animals, and, whatever may be ite nature, it renders a dog very uncomfortable in the region of the stomach. One dose of it satisfies his curiosity.