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same time for a shower bath, which was given him tenderly from 
the fine rose of a watering-can. The Common Toad crawls with 
an ungainly motion with the foot flat to the ground; the toad 
which I believe to be a distinct variety, steps delicately upon the 
tips of his toes. I have been intimately acquainted with several 
members of the toad family who always moved ‘in this fashion ; 
and in addition to this distinctive peculiarity, such always, as I 
fancied, were brighter and glossier in their skins—the mincing 
dandies of their race. One of the most curious sights of the kind 
I know is to see a toad sitting holding an earth-worm in his 
grotesque fingers, and drawing it deliberately into his mouth, as I 
have seen a Frenchman eat a slender roll, or a child a finger biscuit. 
I only now of one species of Frog in England, though I have 
heard tales from the fens of one like the American bullfrog for size 
and voracity ; but I speak with caution, for of the Bat alone I was 
told with authority the other day, in England there are upwards of 
twenty varieties. We have at any rate here to my knowledge 
neither the mute or edible Frog of France,! nor the brilliant little 
Tree Frog of southern Italy.2 I cannot resist here telling you a 
story of a frog I once knew. Some years ago I was walking along 
a dusty high road early in March, a cold north-easter blowing, 
when I espied the most deplorable-looking frog it was ever my 
ill fortune to meet. His skin was dry and hard and shrunken, 
and his poor worn body seemed actually shrivelled. Vow, 
with his fellows, under favourable circumstances he should 
have been enjoying himself with all a summer’s pleasure before 
him, swelling the jocund song of his race—Brachy Koax—which 
would soon be going merrily up from many a reedy pool and deep 
lake side. I pitied my friend upon the highway, wrapped him up 
in my handkerchief and took him home—placed him in a large 
foot bath with a box lid for a floating island, gave him some shreds 
of raw meat, and left him for the night. To make a long story 
short, he soon grew fat and well liking, and as soon as he saw me 
would hop up on to his island, and gaze at me from his far away 
sphynx-like eyes. This was curious; but he grew so familiar that 
1 Rana esculenta. 2 Hyla arborea.—(ED.) 
