l66 ECOLOGY AND LIFE HISTORY OF THE COMMON FROG 



preventing the user of the arms from seeing the results of his actions. 

 But the Greeks slaughtered each other in hand-to-hand combat, and 

 Homer leaves out few details of the technique. The mass-production 

 methods of Tamerlane the Great, although only manual, have but 

 recently been excelled. My own ideas on this perplexing subject 

 suggest that on the geological time-scale, man has temporarily 

 exempted himself from the consequences of beUicosity that have 

 eliminated this tendency in other animals, and that natural selection 

 is now overtaking him. We should therefore not be surprised to fmd 

 that frogs do not fight to the death. We should, however, be quite 

 wrong to suppose that they do not fight: they certainly do, and very 

 vigorously, but with an exceptional lack of damage to each other. 

 In fact, the victor leaves not a mark upon his opponent, for the very 

 good reason that he has no weapons. He has no claws, and his teeth 

 are used only for holding prey. 



In the breeding season the males of most species of Anura develop 

 the so-called "nuptial pads" on their thumbs. It was formerly beUeved 

 that these pads, consisting of a patch of rough and thickened skin, were 

 for holding a reluctant female. In fact, however, they are part of the 

 equipment of a wrestler, used for preventing the abduction of a far 

 from unwilling female by a rival male. The method of fighting in this 

 and other species is a trial of strength, in which one male seizes any 

 available part of a female in the possession of another male,and attempts 

 to dislodge his rival by hooking his feet against the rival, and then 

 pushing with all his strength. The vigour of these struggles is terrific, 

 the contestants rolling over and over in the water, with the female 

 playing a passive part. Sometimes, more than one frog attempts to 

 dislodge the original male, so that a ball of animals can be seen tumbling 

 this way and that way as the battle goes on. I have never seen a well- 

 placed frog dislodged, but I have httle doubt that a weak one, or one 

 that had not quite secured himself in position, would be hard put to it 

 to maintain his place. In Bombina variegata, I have seen a successful 

 attack on a pair o£ Bomhina bombina, in which the attacker, a shghtly 

 more powerful animal, managed to hook his feet under the chin of 

 the sitting male. With one mighty shove, the unfortunate B. bombina 

 was bent backwards, and released his hold, whereupon the victorious 

 B. variegata settled down in possession. It is in this species that the 

 fmal argument in favour of my view that nuptial pads are a kind of 

 weapon is to be found, for B. variegata has not only pads on its thumbs, 



