Trenny Skropke, age 11, of Enid, Okla., for her question:

Does the horned frog make a good pet?

There is a so called horned toad which is really a lizard and a horned frog which is really a frog. One of them makes a quiet, lazy pet, content to bask in a warm sandy terrarium. The other is a bad tempered, belligerent smallish monster, always ready to leap at you and take a fierce bite from your finger. Naturally, this fellow is not on the list of recommended pets.    

The horned toad, alias the horned lizard, belongs to our southwestern deserts, and his colors merge with his sandy surroundings. He has a fierce¬looking face with a wide mouth and many of his scales form spikes. He is no beauty, but this lazy lizard makes a pleasant and interesting pet. He is quite happy in a warm terrarium with a few dew drenched leaves and a diet of insects.

The horned frog is something else again. Several species of these whopping amphibians menace small and even large animals in swampy regions of South and Central America. In Argentina, one is said to be a horse killer  which may or may not be true. Some are 8 or 10 inches wide, others are smaller and most of them wear very gaudy colors.

The average horned frog has a fearsome face with a very wide mouth and a bulldog type jaws. The turreted eyes on the top of his head are topped with what looks like a pair of bullish horns. Actually, the horns are extensions of his eyelids. Though they look like belligerent weapons, they are neither hard nor sharp.

The fierce looking horned lizard is a fairly gentle character. Not so the fierce looking horned frog. If anything, he is fiercer than he looks. In his native home he lurks in the grass or partly buried in the dirt. When any animal, large or small, passes by, he leaps aloft and grabs  and his mighty jaws have a bulldog grip.

If the victim is an insect or a snake, a bird or any other creature small enough to be eaten, down it goes. Sometimes he grabs onto the lip of a grazing horse and hangs on like a bulldog. He injects no poison, but later the wound may become infected and prove fatal. This is why the horned frog of Argentina is called a horse killer.

Even the small species and the partly grown larger species act like bad tempered bulldogs, always ready to grab even the finger of a possible friend. What's more, they have no friendly feelings even for their own relatives. Horned frogs are merciless cannibals, which helps to keep down their numbers.

A horned frog does not lose his fierce character in captivity. Far from it. When someone goes near him, he leaps at his cage. Feeding time is a risky problem because he does his best to grab a finger for dessert.    

So the    horned toad, alias the horned lizard, is rated as a suitable pet. But the horned frog is not. If he is a genuine horned frog, he is most definitely on the list of unsuitable pets. He belongs in the wilds, and even there he is definitely not to be trusted.