APPENDIX : NO. XIX. 21 
DUDS 
Is tHe Eprspue Froc a true Native oF BRITAIN ? 
[‘ Zoologist,’ v. (1847) pp. 1821, 1822.] 
As the ‘ Zoologist ? has been the means through which the discovery 
of the Edible Frog in England was announced to the world, it ought 
also to be the means of reminding the less cautious class of natura- 
lists, that this finding the Edible Frog in one very confined locality 
is by no means to be considered proof of its being a native. ‘True, 
Foulmire is a very peculiar spot; situated some miles to the 
south of Cambridge on the very limit of the county, and surrounded 
by rising ground, the Cam, a branch of which takes its rise here, is 
its only connexion with the real “ Fens.” The nature of Foulmire 
differs from that of all other fens I have seen, in having the 
continuity of the vegetable substance or turf of which it is composed 
interrupted by frequent wells or pits of pure water, the bottom 
of which is kept clean by the rising of springs in the sand beneath, 
though in others of these pits, and those generally the largest, the 
rise of water is not sufficiently rapid to prevent black mud accumu- 
lating at the bottom, which in some serves as a pabulum for large 
water-plants. Tull lately, on one side the rising ground was a sandy. 
heath, which, if I have been rightly informed, was inhabited by the 
Natterjack, and I have seen this reptile in the sands of Gamlingay, 
which is no very great distance off. The Common Frog and the 
Common Toad are abundant in the fen, so also the Warty Newt, and 
perhaps, though I have no special remembrance of it, the Common 
Newt also. 
It is then a peculiar and, in some degree, an isolated fen, but it is 
certain, if the Edible Frogs are aboriginal here, that in the course of 
ages the river must have carried some into the true fens, through 
the very centre of which it flows for several score miles ; and can we 
suppose that they would not increase and flourish there, as well as in 
the neighbourhood of Kingsbury, where Mr. Bond informs me he 
_ has several very thriving colonies? ‘This last fact shows that they 
can live and increase in England elsewhere than at Foulmire ; and 
the rapidity with which they have spread themselves near Kingsbury 
does not point to any very distant period of time for their intro- 
duction to Foulmire. That they do not exist, at least in any plenty, 
in the true fens, is, I think, rendered highly probable by their never 
having attracted the attention of any naturalist there ; certainly in 
my own rambles in the fens I have not seen anything like them. 
I say never, but I ought to qualify the expression by mentioning 
that Mr. Bond tells me he has lately heard of them there, of which 
I hope we shall learn further particulars. But that it is not very 
easy to find, even where most abundant, is shown by the fact, that 
though I have twice been to Foulmire, in March or April, for the 
express purpose of finding it, I did not meet with a single specimen; 
