254 ANURA CHAP. 



The Grass-frog has many more obvious enemies than perhaps 

 any other Amphibian, and it is not even slightly protected by 

 any appreciable poisonous secretion. Nevertheless it is extremely 

 common. A whole host of birds eat it for instance, buzzards, 

 harriers, and above all storks. Foxes, polecats, and stoats are not 

 averse to it, and the Grass-snake derives its main sustenance from 

 it. In fact the enemies of the little frog are legion, one of the 

 worst being Man. In France, Italy, and other parts of the 

 Continent, the skinned fleshy hind-limbs are turned into a by 

 no means disagreeable ragout, or into dainty morsels when 

 fried in butter and encrusted with bread-crumbs. This frog, 

 together with its cousin the Water-frog, also suffers from the 

 distinction of being one of the chief martyrs to science. Per- 

 haps the story is true that Galvani was led to his investigations 

 into animal magnetism and electricity by observing that the 

 legs of a number of skinned frogs, strung up by his wife upon 

 the bronze railings of the balcony, jumped whenever the scissors, 

 which cut off the feet, touched the other metal. Frogs have 

 suffered ever since. Easily procured and of a convenient size, 

 they are used in every biological laboratory, and the young 

 student is supposed to be initiated into the mysteries of Verte- 

 brate structure by the careful dissection and study of this, the 

 worst of all the so-called types. Next to Man there is no 

 animal which has been studied so minutely, and has had so 

 many primers and text-books written on it, as this frog. In 

 spite of all this it is very little understood, thanks to its rather 

 aberrant and far from generalised, structure. 



However, the frog, by reason of its fertility, holds its own. Early 

 in the year, sometimes while there is still ice and snow, the frogs 

 leave their hibernating places (mostly holes in the ground, under 

 moss, or in the mud), and they begin to pair in standing or slowly 

 flowing, mostly shallow, waters. 



They are not always very careful in the selection of the 

 spawning locality, many of them lay their eggs in a ditch, or 

 even in the shallowest puddle, which is sure to dry up, and thus 

 to cause the destruction of the whole brood. This carelessness is 

 all the more surprising when there are large pools or lakes in the 

 immediate vicinity, perhaps only one hundred yards to the other 

 side of the road. The Natterjack is, by the way, equally care- 

 less, while other toads and the tree-frogs are very circumspect. 



