220 ANIMAL SKETCHES. CHAP. 



of colour will be much more marked ; altogether he will 

 look a different creature. It is not good for frogs (or boys 

 and girls) to crouch all day in dark places when the sun 

 is shining bright and warm without. 



The frog can, moreover, drink through his skin. I 

 remember a little green tree-frog I once knew, whom I 

 used to watch climbing up the glass sides of the little 

 moist fern paradise in which he dwelt. Every finger-end 

 had a little cupping-disc, enabling him to stick to the 

 smooth surface. Discontented with his lot he must needs 

 wander to seek his fortunes elsewhere. For long we 

 deemed him dead. At last he was found behind a cup- 

 board, dusty and parched, and shrivelled up a most 

 pitiable little tree-frog. He was not quite dead, however, 

 and we washed him tenderly and placed him in a saucer 

 of tepid water. I think he must have nearly doubled in 

 weight from the water he absorbed through his skin, and 

 soon we had the pleasure of seeing him once more sticking 

 to the glass sides of his pleasant and always moist fern 

 paradise. Hatched in the water, a fish during the child- 

 hood of his life, the frog is never happy when he is far 

 from the native element of his ancestors. 



In March or April, there may be found in the ponds 

 masses of clear jelly-like substance, which, when it is 

 more closely examined, is seen to be made up of trans- 

 parent spheres, each of which incloses a dark round body. 

 These are frogs' eggs. Take some home and watch the 

 development of the little things in a basin or vase of clear 

 water, in which also place some pieces of water- weed. After 

 about fifteen days, the exact time depending upon the 

 warmth of the water, the egg is hatched and the minute 

 tadpole emerges. It is a strange-looking little thing, 

 shaped something like a blunt, overgrown comma. It 

 hangs on to the remains of the jelly-like spheres by 



