18 APPENDIX : NO. XVI. 
running down spouts: the Frogs suppose, instinctively, that where 
water runs down there must be more above, and they try to climb 
up, hoping to find a pond where they may lie in the mud till spring. 
By instinct, fishes in a pump-trough, try to swim up any little jet 
by which freshwater is supplied to them. Perhaps our Frogs, 
having got some little height, mistake the glass for water, and try to 
jump down into it; or the glass looking so like water, may have 
been what originally attracted them, especially if there is any rising 
ground before the window. The probability of these suggestions 
will of course much depend upon local circumstances, as whether 
they could have had access to a pond without any trouble. 
Another explanation that might perhaps suggest itself, is, that if 
they were in a walled garden they were trying to climb out, as every 
one has seen Frogs sticking their toes into the sides of walls in 
the most uncomfortable efforts to escape, and as we know Snakes 
and Lizards will make great exertions for the same purpose; I have 
even seen Vipers in the ivy, nearly at the top of a ten-foot wall. 
But we must not forget Mr. Davis’s first idea that the light may 
have attracted them, for it is curious how many animals are attracted 
by light ; some insects, perhaps more than we are apt to suppose, 
mistaking it for the signal of their mates; some birds perhaps 
guiding their nocturnal flight by it, instead of by a star; other birds, 
thinking themselves in a confined space, flyimg to the light as to a 
hole for escape ; some fishes, possibly seeking phosphorescent food, 
come to the light by mistake; other animals being excited by 
curiosity ; whilst in many cases, we cannot even venture a guess as 
to the reason of a light being such a great attraction; but has 
anyone observed Frogs undoubtedly so influenced ? 
I have, perhaps, after all, made but little advance towards the 
truth ; but I have, I hope, explained why I cannot consider the 
extraordinary sagacity of the Frog at all established by the anecdote 
before us. But that we may come to some satisfactory deter- 
mination, we must make observations and experiments, and com- 
municate to ‘The Zoologist’ any important results of them. I 
shall be really glad if these tend to elevate my present views of the 
moral and intellectual attributes of the Frog ; for I well remember 
the time when I fondly looked upon him as the most pious of 
animals. Besides, his attitude of prayer, and his resignation in the 
extremity of danger; when I saw the fair and plump young Frogs 
carrying their helpless relatives, I used to think it a case equalled 
only by the Dutch story of the Stork, and by that of Auneas after 
the siege of Troy. 
