THE COMMON FROG. 



U 



CHAPTER I. 



What is a Frog ? At first, almost all persons will 

 think, on meeting with this question, that they can 

 answer it readily and easily. Second thoughts, how- 

 ever, will show to most that such is by no means the 

 case. 



Indeed many a man of education and culture will 

 find himself entirely at a loss, if suddenly called upon 

 for a reply to what is in fact a problem by no means 

 easy of solution. 



" The Frog is a small saltatory Reptile " will pro- 

 bably be the reply of the majority. But zs it a 

 Reptile ? At any rate it begins life (in its Tadpole 

 stage) like a Fish. 



By the great Cuvier, however, as by very many 

 naturalists since, it has been regarded as a Reptile, 

 and classed with Lizards, Crocodiles, and Serpents ; 

 and yet it may be a question whether the murine 

 affinity connubially assigned to it in the Nursery tale, 

 be not the lesser error of the two. 



