100 0UR REPTILES. 



sailor employs his hands and feet when ascending the rigging 

 of a ship. One which I did not myself see was discovered at a 

 height of five feet from the ground in the act of descending. 

 It had been alarmed probably at our intrusion, and had fallen 

 to the ground before I reached the spot ; but I had no reason to 

 doubt the accuracy of the statement, for two or three members 

 of my party pointed to the exact spot from which it had fallen ; 

 and if a frog can climb two feet, there is no reason why it 

 should not climb twenty, or more.* 



Mr. Henry Keeks afterwards affirmed that he had 

 found frogs frequently in apparently inaccessible 

 places, such as the tops of pollard willows, in the 

 vicinity of streams, to which they could not have 

 attained save by climbing. The same gentleman 

 also alludes to the toad as an adept in climbing, 

 having often found them in the nests of small birds, 

 in hedges. t Other observers have borne out the 

 above testimony that frogs do climb. 



The common frog has its head nearly triangular ; 

 the teeth are minute, and arranged in a single row 

 in the upper jaw, with an irregular row across the 

 palate but none in the lower jaw. The tongue is 

 lobed at the tip, and folds back upon itself when not 

 in use. The fore feet have the third toe the 

 longest, and the second the shortest. The hind legs 

 are more than half as long again as the body, the 

 toes webbed, the fourth being one-third longer than 

 the third and fifth. The skin is a little wrinkled on 



* Eev. C. A. Johns, in The Zoologist, p. 8861. 

 f Zoologist, p. 8927. 



