104 RANADA. 
year, until the approach of winter warns them to betake 
themselves to their places of hibernation. But, in the mean 
time, thousands of them have fallen a prey to their nume- 
rous enemies; even in the Tadpole state they are devoured 
in hosts by the different species of newts, and small fishes ; 
and when adult, by pikes, and others of the larger species 
of fish, many by the smaller carnivora, such as the weasel 
and the polecat, and many by almost every species of 
water-fowl, as well as by the Common Snake, of which 
they constitute the principal food. Such is the destruction 
which thus takes place amongst them at different periods 
of their growth, that probably not one in a thousand that 
had emerged from the egg in the spring, ever reaches its 
winter retreat. 
That the Frog is susceptible of being tamed to almost- 
as great a degree as the Toad, is proved by the following 
anecdote, for which I am indebted to my friend, Dr. Wil- 
liam Roots, of Kingston, who informs me that he was in 
possession for several years of a Frog in a perfect state of 
domestication. It appears that the lower offices of his house 
were what is commonly called underground, on the banks 
of the Thames. That this little reptile accidentally appear- 
ed to his servants, occasionally issuing from a hole in the 
skirting of the kitchen, and that during the first year of his 
sojourn, he constantly withdrew upon their approach ; but 
from their shewing him kindness, and offering him such food 
as they thought he could partake of, he gradually acquired 
habits of familiarity and friendship; and during the follow- 
ing three years he regularly came out every day, and par- 
ticularly at the hour of meal-time, and partook of the food 
which the servants gave him. But one of the most remark- 
able features in his artificial state of existence, was his 
strong partiality for warmth, as, during the winter seasons, 
