INTRODUCTION 
disposition when in the tadpole state, and again when 
leaving their watery home for the first time, it is strange 
that a more or less solitary life is led until parental calls 
come to them in Spring. Strange too, but none the less 
true, that all the Frogs (and later the Toads) of one’s 
own neighbourhood should arrive at the conclusion 
at about the same time that spawning time is due. During 
the Winter they have been in hiding, passing the lone 
days and cold nights in a state of suspended animation, in 
odd corners and places safe from danger. ‘Then, at the 
magic call of the sun, they awake from their torpor, and 
the great rush to the old breeding quarters comes to pass. 
If one catches them at the height of their journey, a 
wondrous sight meets the eye as the amphibians are seen 
approaching the water from all four points of the compass. 
Many, as in the march during infancy, perish by the way, 
impaled by the Heron’s dagger-like beak, or a Hawk’s 
fierce claw. Others again are crushed under foot, or 
run over. But the fittest pass through the great journey 
unscathed, and they make for the water where, the 
battalions having taken up positions at the breeding 
ground, they commence to search for partners with 
much croaking and ceremony. True they exhibit at such 
time somewhat repulsive antics, as groups of several 
individuals may be found in one writhing mass, but 
this must be overlooked when one remembers the low 
type of creature which sometimes carries out the per- 
- petuation of its species in the manner indicated. The 
male of both Frog and Toad is distinctly the smaller of 
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