FROGS. 307 
The Bull Frog’s food may consist of large worms, common 
frogs, small birds, such as sparrows, and mice. It is able to take 
wonderful leaps, and when it is frightened while in the water, 
will jump even there, leaping clumsily over the surface. 
The Occipital Bull Frog (Rana occipitalis) is very like the last 
animal mentioned, and while in confinement should be treated in 
the same manner. The chief differences between this Batrachian 
and its near relative 2. tigrima, consist in a fold of skin which 
unites the posterior angles of the eyelids, and in more developed 
vocal sacs. 2. occipitalis is a native of West Africa. 
The Graceful Frog (R. gracilis) is also closely related to the 
Indian Bull Frog. It is of smaller size and possesses half- 
webbed toes. It is a native of the East Indies and Southern 
China. 
The American Bull Frog (R. catesbiana, Fig. 79), is nowadays 
frequently imported into this countiy, both as an object of interest 
and as a suitable inmate of the Vivarium. I remember quite well 
the first animal of this species I ever possessed and how quickly 
I concluded that it fully deserved its English epithet. I put it in 
a case placed in a shady spot in a conservatory. A few days after 
its arrival, as I was talking to the gardener, I suddenly heard the 
Frog begin to bellow ; my companion heard it too, and listened, 
while his face betokened the greatest astonishment. Presently he 
looked up and said: “I am thinking, sir, that there’s a calf in 
the green-house,”” and away he went to turn out the intruder. 
The garden is surrounded with a high wall, so a trespasser of the 
bovine kind is not to be expected; hence the man’s manifest 
surprise. 
The Bull Frog is eaten in America, and one would think, if 
there be no difference in the flavour, that it is a more suitable 
animal for this purpose, owing to its size, than the Edible Frog of 
the Old World. Some years ago Mr. Seth Green, an eminent 
American pisciculturist, suggested that a Frog Farm would be a 
successful undertaking. He calculated that if the spawn were 
carefully selected and put in a place suitable for its hatching and 
the growth of the tadpoles and young frogs, the animals would be 
easily reared, and be likely to realise a large profit. He planned 
that the stock might be fed by placing meat at the water’s edge, 
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