22 



BATEACHIANS. 



and no longer eat. To protect themselves from the cold, they bury 

 themselves deeply in the mud : troops of them joining together in 

 the same place. Thus hidden, they pass the winter in a state of 

 torpor ; sometimes the cold freezes their bodies without killing them. 

 This state of torpor gives way in the first days of spring. During 

 the month of March, Frogs begin to awake and to move them- 

 selves ; this is their breeding season. Their race is so prolific that 



Fig. 5.— Development of the Tadpole. 



1. Epg of the Frog. 2. The Egg fecundated, and siuTounded bj^ its visicule. .3. First state of the 

 Tadpole. 4. Ajipearance of the breathing gills. 5. Their development. 6. Formation of the hind 

 feet. 7. Formation of the fore feet, and decay of the gills. 8. Development of the lungs, and 

 reduction of the tail. 9. The perfect Frog. 



a female can produce from six to twelve hundred eggs annually. 

 These eggs are globular, and are in form a glutinous and trans- 

 parent spheroid, at the centre of which is a little blackish 

 globule ; the eggs float, and form like chaplets on the surface of 

 the water. 



All who have observed the small ponds and ditches in the 

 country at this season, will have seen these light and elegant 



