xxviii 



COMMON FROGS AND TOADS OF AN INDIAN GARDEN 



" Ne let the unpleasant queyre of frogs still croking, 

 Make us to wish theyr choking." 



SPENSER. 



COMMON bull-frogs, Rana tigrina, are imposing 

 creatures, both in respect to size and colour. 

 Large specimens are often more than half a foot 

 in length, and, in many cases, are very brilliantly 

 coloured, more especially when they have just been 

 summoned out from their subterranean haunts by 

 the onset of the first heavy showers of the rainy 

 season. At this time, and seemingly as the result 

 of etiolation, they often show no dark markings, 

 but are uniformly painted in a bright canary 

 yellow that makes them stand out very con- 

 spicuously among the green tints of the surround- 

 ing grass and weeds. Very soon, however, they 

 begin to darken, and presently their coats acquire 

 a greenish-yellow or bright olive ground, thickly 

 variegated with bold dark blotches, the general 

 effect being such as to render them very likely 



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