36 NATURE STUDY 



Frogs I Have Seen. 



BY O. H. I^EAVITT. 



I was fishing for perch, standing on a rock which ran 

 out a few feet into the pond, and throwing the fish into the 

 bushes on shore, when I heard a rustling and looked 

 around and saw a large bullfrog swallowing a perch which 

 was longer than the bullfrog was in his natural condition. 

 He could not stretch his body quite enough to cover the 

 whole of the fish, but went off happy with the fish's tail 

 sticking out of his mouth. 



Near the same pond I picked up a turtle about two 

 inches across and, after looking at him a few minutes, 

 threw him into the water, where he was seized by a frog 

 and swallowed whole. The head of this frog was not more 

 than an inch and a half wide in its natural position. 



I once sent a hired boy on an errand which took him 

 through the woods by a wood road. He came back and 

 said he had found a snake with legs. He appeared so 

 honest about it and so sure that I went with him to see for 

 myself. And I did see — a green snake which had swal- 

 lowed a small frog, hind legs first, until the forward legs, 

 being spread out, stopped the operation, and the snake's 

 mouth, being of the same color and stretched so thin that 

 it fitted closely, was a better deception than Barnum's mer- 

 maid. 



So far there has been only one frog to a story. The 

 next one has two frogs and a toad. I had a tame owl, and 

 in foraging for him I took a large bullfrog and cut it 

 open, so the owl could begin on it. Inside of the frog was 

 a toad, still too large for the owl to tear open, so I cut that 

 also, and found a small frog inside the toad — the combin- 

 ation illustrating how frogs and toads can " dwell to- 

 gether in harmony." 



