50 THOSE OTHER ANIMALS. 



His weather-wisdom is notorious ; he descries the approach 

 of wet weather long before any change is visible to the 

 duller sense of man. As an athlete he is remarkable, in 

 spite of his comparatively disproportionate girth ; he can 

 leap long distances, and as a swimmer he is unrivalled. 

 Although habitually silent, he is capable of sustaining a 

 lively conversation, and even of singing. These accom- 

 plishments he is chary of displaying in this country, having 

 experience of the proneness of the rustic boy to cast stones 

 at him ; but in countries such as Italy, where the boy is 

 less aggressive and the frog more numerous, the force and 

 power with which a tribe of frogs will lift up their voices in 

 chorus is astounding. 



It has been the opinion of scientific inquirers that the 

 frog could do a great deal more talking than he does if 

 he chose. Certain it is that a frog, when in danger, such 

 as being played with by a cat, can cry like a child, making 

 himself heard two or three hundred yards away. But it 

 is only on an emergency like this, or when assembled in 

 conclave, that the frog cares to break his customary silence. 

 He acquired the habit undoubtedly during the period of 

 his sojourn under water in the guise of a tadpole. During 

 that period of his life he had neither means nor opportunities 

 of exchanging ideas with his fellows, and the result is the 

 same taciturnity in afterlife that would be shown by a human 

 being deprived during his early years of all friendly inter- 

 course with others. That the frog possesses a strong sense of 

 humour is undeniable. The manner in which he will sit, 

 apparently unconscious of the approach of man, until a hand 

 is outstretched to seize him, and will then, with a whisk and 

 plunge, dive headlong into a pool, and lift his head from 



