STRUCTURE AND HABITS OF THE FROG. 151 



When the young have attained their perfect state, they break their way through the 

 cover of the cells, and present a most singular aspect as they struggle from the skin, their 

 heads and paws projecting in all directions. After the whole brood have left their mother's 

 back, the cells begin to fill up again, closing from below as well as from above, and becoming 

 irregularly puckered on the floors. The cells in the middle of the back are the first developed ; 

 the whole process occupies rather more than eighty days. 



As its name implies, this singular creature inhabits Surinam, but is also found in various 

 parts of Central America. In spite of its repulsive aspect, the negroes are said to eat its flesh. 



The color of the Surinam Toad is brownish-olive above, and whitish below. The skin is 

 covered with a large number of tiny and very hard granules, among which are interspersed 

 some horny tubercular projections. The snout is of a very curious shape, the nostrils being 

 lengthened into a kind of leathery tube. The throat of the male is furnished with a very large 

 bony apparatus, of a triangular, box- like shape ; and within are two movable pieces by which 

 the voice is modulated. 



In the illustration the animal appears one-half of its natural size. 



WE now come to the Batrachians with tongues. In the greater number of these creat- 

 ures, the tongue is fastened to the front of the mouth, and free behind, the tip pointing down 

 the throat. The prey is taken by the rapid throwing forward of this tongue, and its equally 

 rapid withdrawal into the mouth, carrying the doomed creature on its tip, with such celerity, 

 that the eye can hardly follow the movement. 



The skeleton of the adult Frog is worthy of a short notice before we proceed to the further 

 investigation of these remarkable creatures. The first remarkable point is the shape of the 

 head, and the enormous size of the orbits of the eyes, which are so large, that, when the skull 

 is placed flat upon an open book, several words can be read through the orifices. Very little 

 room is left for the brain, and, in consequence, the intellectual powers of the Frog are but 

 slender. 



The vertebrae are furnished with projections at each side, but the ribs are totally wanting. 

 On account of this deficiency, the process of respiration cannot be maintained as is usual 

 among the better developed beings, but is similar to that which is employed by the tortoises. 

 The needful movements are made not by the sides but by the throat, so that if a quiescent 

 Frog be watched, it appears to be continually gulping something down its throat, as is indeed 

 the case, the material being air, which is thus forced into the beautifully formed lungs. 



The hind-legs are extremely long, and the toes so much lengthened, that in the common 

 Frog the middle toe occupies about three-fifths of the length of the entire body, and in some 

 species is even more produced. Owing to the peculiar shape of the limbs, the Frog when 

 reposing sits almost upright, and is at once ready for the extraordinarily long leaps which it 

 can take when alarmed. The usual mode of progression is by a series of jumps, though of 

 short range, but the creature will often crawl after the fashion of the toad the presence of a 

 snake seeming almost always to have the effect of causing the change of action. 



The skin of the Frog is very porous, and is capable of absorbing and exuding water with 

 wonderful rapidity. If a Frog, for example, be kept for some time in a perfectly dry spot, it 

 loses its fine, sleek condition, becomes thin and apparently emaciated, and assumes a very 

 pitable appearance. But if it be then placed merely on wet blotting-paper, its thirsty skin 

 drinks the needful moisture, and it soon becomes quite plump and fresh. A familiar proof of 

 the extreme porosity of the skin is afforded by the dead Frogs which are often found on the 

 highroad or dry paths in the middle of summer, and which are dried into a shrivelled, horny 

 mass, which would be shapeless but for the bones of the skeleton around which the skin and 

 muscles contract. 



The whole of these creatures are most tenacious of life, suffering the severest wounds 

 without appearing to be much injured at the time, and bearing the extremes of cold and 

 hunger with singular endurance. Heat, however, is always distasteful to the Frog, and when 

 carried to any extreme becomes fatal. In the hot countries, where Frogs of various species 

 exist, they all unite in the one habit of avoiding the hot beams of the sun by hiding in 



