their silence, how much they are displeased with the weather. All very dry weather is hurtful to their health, and prevents them from getting their prey. They subsist chiefly upon worms and snails; and as drought prevents these from appearing, the frog is thus stinted in its provisions, and also wants that grateful humidity which moistens its skin, and renders it alert and active..

As frogs adhere closely to the backs of their own species, so it has been found, by repeated experience, they will also adhere to the backs of fishes. Few that have ponds, but know that these animals will stick to the backs of carp, and fix their fingers in the corner of each eye. In this manner they are often caught together; the carp blinded and wasted away. Whether this proceeds from the desires of the frog, disappointed of its proper mate, or whether it be a natural enmity between frogs and fishes, I will not take upon me to say. A story told us by Walton, might be apt to incline us to the latter opinion.

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"As Dubravius, a bishop of Bohemia, was walking with a friend by a large pond in that country, they saw a frog, when the pike lay very sleep

ily and quiet by the shore side, leap upon his “head, and the frog having expressed malice or anger by his swollen cheeks and staring eyes, did "stretch out his legs, and embraced the pike's head, and presently reached them to his eyes, tearing with them and his teeth those tender

parts; the pike, irritated with anguish, moves up "and down the water, and rubs himself against "weeds, and whatever he thought might quit him "of his enemy; but all in vain, for the frog did

"continue to ride triumphantly, and to bite and " torment the pike till his strength failed, and then "the frog sunk with the pike to the bottom of the "water: then presently the frog appeared again at "the top and croaked, and seemed to rejoice like a

conqueror; after which he presently retired to his "secret hole. The bishop, that had beheld the battle, called his fisherman to fetch his nets, and by all means to get the pike, that they might "declare what had happened. The pike was "drawn forth, and both his eyes eaten out; at which, "when they began to wonder, the fisherman wished "them to forbear, and assured them he was certain "that pikes were often so served."

Another tribe of this numerous family claims our attention, from the singularity of its formation and manners. These animals have a much slenderer and more elegant shape than the common frog, and have the limbs longer: but that which renders them more an object of curiosity, is the curious structure of their toes. At the end of each toe is a round, fleshy, concave substance, not much unlike the mouth of a leach, which exudes an unctuous matter, and by which it is enabled to adhere to the branches and leaves of trees, and even to the most polished surfaces. Only one of these tree-frogs is a native of Europe, and is found in France, Germany, and Italy. It is much smaller than the common frog, of a green colour on the upper parts, with a whitish abdomen, marked with numerous granulations; the under surface of the limbs is reddish, and on each side the body is a dark violet-coloured line, separating the green from the white; the feet are not webbed.

During summer, the tree frog lives in woods, where it climbs trees, and wanders among the leaves and branches in search of insects, which are its food. These it catches with great dexterity, creeping softly towards them, and springing suddenly upon them, as a cat does upon a mouse. By means of its toes, it can suspend its body at pleasure from the under surface of a leaf or branch, and remove its situation from one limb of a tree to another, or descend to the ground. The skin of the abdomen is likewise covered over with minute prominent glands, which appear to operate as so many suckers, and by means of which it can fasten closely to the under surface of any substance, even glass, in whatever position, or inclination it may be placed. About the end of autumn, it descends and retires to the waters, where it lies concealed in a state of torpidity during the winter, in the mud, or under some bank. On the return of spring it emerges from its winter residence, and deposits its spawn in the water. At this period, the male inflates his throat in a surprising manner, and utters a loud and sharp croak. The spawn is deposited in small clustered masses, about April, and the frog is perfected in the beginning of August, when they climb the neighbouring trees, and reside during the remaining warm weather: at this time they are observed to be particularly clamorous upon the approach of rain. By means of the suckers on the abdomen, they absorb a prodigious quantity of moisture, supplying themselves in this manner with a necessary element, which from their local habitation they must else be deprived of. One of these in the possession of Mr. Townson, was

weighed before it was put into water, and after remaining half an hour, was found to have absorbed about half its own weight of water. He observed also, that they have a power of ejecting water from their body with considerable force, to the quantity of a fourth part of their own weight.

CHAP. III.

Of the Toad, and its Varieties.

IF we regard the figure of the Toad, there seems nothing in it that should disgust more than that of the frog. Its form and proportions are nearly the same; and it chiefly differs in colour, which is blacker; and its slow and heavy motion, which exhibits nothing of the agility of the frog: yet such is the force of habit, begun in early prejudice, that those who consider the one as a harmless, playful animal, turn from the other with horror and disgust. The frog is considered as an useful assistant, in ridding our grounds of vermin; the toad, as a secret enemy, that only wants an opportunity to infect us with its venom.

The imagination, in this manner biassed by its terrors, paints out the toad in the most hideous colouring, and clothes it in more than natural deformity, Its body is broad; its back flat; covered with a dusky, pimpled hide; the belly is large and swagging; the pace laboured and crawling; its

retreat gloomy and filthy; and its whole appearance calculated to excite disgust and horror: yet upon my first seeing a toad, none of all these deformities in the least affected me with sensations of loathing: born, as I was, in a country where there are no toads, I had prepared my imagination for some dreadful object; but there seemed nothing to me more alarming in the sight, than in that of a common frog; and indeed, for some time, I mistook and handled the one for the other. When first informed of my mistake, I very well remember my sensations: I wondered how I had escaped with safety, after handling and dissecting a toad, which I had mistaken for a frog. I then began to lay in a fund of horror against the whole tribe, which, though convinced they are harmless, I shall never get rid of. My first imaginations were too strong not only for my reason, but for the conviction of my senses.

As the toad bears a general resemblance of figure to the frog, so also it resembles that animal in its nature and appetites. Like the frog, the toad is amphibious; like that animal, it lives upon worms and insects, which it seizes by darting out its length of tongue and in the same manner also it crawls about in moist weather. The male and female couple as in all the frog kind; their time of propagation being very early in the spring. Sometimes the females are seen upon land, oppressed by the males; but more frequently they are coupled in the water. They continue together some hours, and adhere so fast as to tear the very skin from the parts they stick to. In all this they entirely resemble the frog; but the assistance which the male lends