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are men in France who earn a living for six months 

 in the year by frog-fishing. No tackle is used : a 

 piece of red flannel, or better the skin of a frog, 

 rolled-up in a ball about the size of an acorn, attached 

 to a line, is agitated at the surface of the water and 

 greedily seized by the frog, which is hauled up before 

 it has time to let go. An interesting account of this 

 mode of capture has been published by R. Rollinat, 

 ' Bull. Soc. Aquic. France' (2), vi, 1894, p. 37. This 

 frog is very voracious, and large specimens will occa- 

 sionally capture snakes and small mammals and birds. 



Pairing does not take place, in the typical form, 

 until May in the northern parts of the Continent, 

 earlier in the south, viz. end of March or beginning 

 of April in Southern Italy. The var. ridibunda breeds 

 about a fortnight sooner, near Berlin towards the 

 beginning or middle of May, and the spawning appears 

 to be usually over by the time the typical form sets 

 to this duty, which also lasts over a more extended 

 period, often until the end of June or beginning of 

 July. Tins difference in the spawning season is the 

 important factor which permits the existence in the 

 same locality of two forms so closely allied and, as 

 ascertained by Pfliiger, fertile when crossed, occasions 

 for interbreeding being comparatively rare. We have 

 thus here an example of what is known in botany as 

 " asyngamy." As far as my experience goes, the 

 females of the var. ridibunda get rid of their eggs 

 within a very few days. On the 27th May, 1884, I 

 received from Berlin 85 specimens of the var. ridibunda 

 and 41 of the typical form, and found that all the 

 females of the former were spent, whereas all the 

 latter were full of ova. In May, 1886, at Berlin, I 

 observed the ridibunda form spawning between the 

 14th and 20th, whilst the typical form was only 

 beginning to pair ; however, owing to the great heat 

 that followed, great numbers of the latter were 

 spawning a few days later. 



The male clasps the female under the arms, the 



