chapter 7 



FOOD, HIBERNATION AND MIGRATION 



Food 



The most extensive work on the food of frogs has been carried out by 

 Cott. Much of his work has been on other species, and is for the most 

 part pubhshed in connexion with his distinctive studies on selective 

 predation as a factor of adaptation, and has not been pubhshed as a 



Table 2 

 FOOD TAKEN BY 17 FROGS AT LAND'S END, CORNWALL 



contribution to the ecology of this animal in particular. Smith (195 1) 

 has, however, tabulated many of Dr. Cott's results, and the following 

 account is taken from this source. 



Tables 2, 3 and 4 show the detailed analyses. It can be seen that 

 the main food of frogs in these areas, some from near Land's End in 

 Cornwall and some from other parts of the country (including frogs 

 killed on Totteridge Lane and collected during the migration studies 

 described in the next section of this chapter), is molluscs, mostly slugs. 

 Toads collected in the same areas had, on the contrary, eaten large 

 numbers of ants, which frogs hardly eat at all. Now, it seems that 



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