96 RANAD.E. 



and the Frog having expressed malice or anger by his 

 swoln cheeks and staring eyes, did stretch out his legs, and 

 embraced the pike's head, and presently reached them to 

 his eyes, tearing with them and his teeth those tender 

 parts.' " It appears by the sequel that the bishop's fisher- 

 man assured him that " pikes were often so served." Now, 

 although there is evidently here much of the exaggeration 

 which may naturally be expected from the astonishment of 

 ignorance, yet there is no reason to doubt that the main 

 facts are true. It happens, too, that the sex of the Frog is 

 incidentally and unwittingly furnished by the writer by his 

 mention of the " swoln cheeks," which he attributes to the 

 creature's malice against his formidable enemy. 



I have often heard my father relate an instance of a 

 similar fact, though with somewhat more adherence to the 

 simple truth of the case. As he was walking in the spring 

 on the banks of a large piece of water at Wimpole, the 

 seat of Lord Hardwicke, he observed a large pike swim- 

 ming in a very sluggish manner near the surface of the 

 water, having two dark-coloured patches on the side, which 

 he thought must be occasioned by disease. A few days 

 afterwards he saw the same pike floating dead upon the 

 surface of the water, and having drawn it to land by means 

 of a stick, he found that the dark-coloured masses, which 

 he had observed on the former occasion, were two living 

 Frogs, still attached to the fish, and that so firmly, that it 

 required some force to push them off with the stick. There 

 can be no doubt that the diseased state of the pike facili- 

 tated the approach and adhesion of the Frogs, to which 

 they were primarily impelled by the sexual instinct before 

 mentioned. 



During the cohesion of the two sexes, then, the female 

 commences the deposition of the spawn, which is fecundated 



