FROGS. 321 
The Ceratophrys is ungainly in shape, and, as a rule, gaudy in 
colour. It is, however, a most interesting Frog and a long liver 
in confinement. 
C. cornuta is a large Batrachian, being abcut six inches long, 
four inches across the back, and possesses a mouth of three inches 
in width. It is able to swallow with comparative ease a full- 
grown Common Frog (Rana temporaria). In captivity it may be 
fed upon Frogs, Toads, young rats, full-grown mice, and small 
birds, such as sparrows. Owing to the Ceratophrys’ habit of 
almost completely burying itself, it should be provided, while in 
confinement, with plenty of garden mould, in which, with the 
help of its powerful metatarsal shovel, it will hide, leaving only 
its back and its eyes above the surface. It is then likely to 
escape detection. In such a position as this, while in a state of 
nature, it waits for the approach of those creatures upon which it 
is accustomed to prey. The Ceratophrys is not an active animal 
by any means. Its legs seem hardly long enough to carry for- 
ward its large body. 
' These Horned Frogs are plucky animals and not easily 
frightened. They are generally quite ready to attack anyone who 
is unkind enough to tease them, often, as they do so, barking like 
asmall dog. They are, therefore, sometimes known as “ Barking 
Frogs.”” The power of their Jaws is immense. They will readily 
seize with their mouth a piece of stick which has been presented 
to them, leaving the marks of their teeth upon its surface. I 
have known one of these creatures cling so tenaciously to a hat it 
had caught with its mouth that it was quite a difficult matter, 
without hurting the Batrachian, to make it give up its hold. 
The Ceratophrys is very bulldog-like in the tenacity with which 
it will usually cling to any substance it has taken in its jaws, 
sometimes suffering death in consequence. Mr. W. H. Hudson, 
in an article published in the Feld for 31st March, 1883, and 
also in his very interesting book, “The Naturalist in the La 
Plata,” speaking of C. ornata, says: “In disposition they are 
most truculent, savagely biting at anything which comes near 
them ; and when they bite they hang on with the tenacity of a 
bulldog, poisoning the blood with their glandular secretions. 
When teased, the creature swells itself cut to such an extent one 
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