PREFACE. 



The average reader, old or young, does not usually 

 find himself so mncli interested in an anipliibian or 

 reptile as lie does in fishes, birds, or mammals, because 

 they are not often objects of pursuit for either " sport" 

 or food. In fact, casually, they are abhorrent. But if 

 he should be one of those whose interest goes beyond 

 that of the mere amusement which satisfies the most 

 primitive of his instincts, he will nowhere in the 

 realm of animal life find objects more worthy of his 

 attention. Herein Nature, with the potter's clay of 

 plastic things in her palms, seemed to have tarried in 

 delightful experiment before she shaped the higher 

 and better creatures ; and in the amphibians especially 

 — even more so than the fishes — appears to have in- 

 dulged every passing caprice and suggestion. 



To look in on her in some of her vagaries, and 

 note her as she seems to put, drop by drop, the al- 

 chemy of change into the fuming elements, is partly 

 the object of this little volume. The author indulges 

 the hope, also, that the humble, creeping things herein 

 described may not be longer despised, but that a more 

 intimate knowledge of them will help to arouse a 

 sympathetic interest in one of the ostracised families 



of the animate world. 



J. X. B. 



XV 



