TREE-FROGS. 25S 



their natural food to remain before them un- 

 touched, yet if it make the smallest motion, they 

 instantly seize it. A knowledge of this circum- 

 stance enabled Dr. Townson to feed his favourite 

 Tree-frog, Musidora, through the winter. Before 

 the flies, which were her usual food, had dis- 

 appeared in autumn, he collected for her a great 

 quantity, as winter provision. When he laid 

 any of them before her, she took no notice of 

 them ; but the moment he moved them with his 

 breath, she sprung upon and ate them. Once 

 when flies were scarce, the Doctor cut some flesh 

 of a tortoise into small pieces, and moved these 

 by the same means. She seized them, but the 

 instant afterwards rejected them from her tongue. 

 After he had obtained her confidence, she ate 

 from his fingers dead as well as living flies. 

 Frogs will leap at a moving shadow of any small 

 object ; and both Frogs and Toads will soon 

 become sufficiently familiar to sit on the hand, 

 and be carried from one side of the room to the 

 other in order to catch flies as they settle on the 

 wall. At Gottingen, Dr. Townson made them 

 his guards for keeping these troublesome crea- 

 tures from his dessert of fruit, and they acquitted 

 themselves to his satisfaction. He has even seen 

 the small Tree-frogs eat humble bees, but this 

 was never done without some contest. The 

 Frogs were in general obliged to reject them, 

 being incommoded by their stings and hairy 

 roughness ; but in each attempt the bee was 

 farther covered with viscid matter from the Frog-'s 

 tongue, and, when sufficiently covered with this, 

 it was easily swallowed.* 



* " Bingley's Animal Biography," iii. 162. 



