180 A FROG-EULOGY, 



endeavouring to establish a broad and marked difference between 

 the two animals, he was, perhaps, all the while, though uncon- 

 sciously to himself, writing with an eye to the dinner-table. 



But let us see what M. de Lace'pede has to say. In his 

 estimation, then, the Frog is " as agreeable in its conformation 

 as distinguished by its qualities, and interests us by the pheno- 

 mena which it exhibits at the different periods of its career. 

 We behold in it a useful animal from which we have nothing to 

 fear, whose instinct is harmless, which unites an elegant form 

 with supple and slender limbs, and which is adorned with 

 pleasing colours, rendered more vivid from a kind of natural 

 varnish with which the animal is constitutionally provided. And 

 who can regard with pain a being whose form is light, whose 

 movements are nimble, and whose attitudes are graceful ? Let 

 us not deprive ourselves of an additional source of pleasure, and 

 in our walks through the smiling fields, let us not regret to see 

 the banks of the streams adorned by the colours of these harm- 

 less animals, and animated by their lively gambols." French- 

 man-like, M. de Lacepede is particularly emphatic on the subject 

 of movements and attitudes, and thus caps the climax of his 

 frog-eulogy : " When a Frog leaves the water, so far from 

 moving with his face turned towards the earth, and basely wal- 

 lowing in the dirt like the Toad, he advances by lofty leaps. 

 One would say that he desires to associate himself with the air 

 as the purest element ; and when he rests on the ground, he 

 always does so with his head erect, and his body raised upon his 

 forefeet, an attitude which gives him the upright appearance of 

 an animal whose instincts have in them something noble, rather 

 than those which belong to the horizontal position of a vile rep- 

 tile." It is clear, we think, as we have already suggested, that 

 this rhapsodical praise is intended quite as much for the advan- 

 tage of frog-eaters as of Frogs ; for is not the inference irre- 

 sistible, that if an animal really have all these superlatively good 

 qualities, it must be, as the Cockney phrase is, " most excellent 

 good eating !" 



The Edible Frog of the Continent (Rama esculenta) is also a 

 native of this country, although it is by no means generally dis- 

 tributed. It is larger than the common Frog, and is readily dis- 

 tinguished by the presence of a light line along the centre of the 

 back. Our versatile and livelv neighbours across the Channel 



