228 THE BROOK BOOK 



zoom, zoom, zoom/ Resonant, booming, manful, it is 

 well worth going miles to hear. 



Every spring I go somewhere to look for frogs' 

 and toads' eggs. The latter are in strings of soft, 

 half-transparent jelly and often float on the sur- 

 face of the pond or cling among the stems of 

 water plants. A frog's egg, when new-laid, looks 

 like a small black bead. Each egg is surrounded 

 by its own envelope of transparent jelly. Great 

 numbers are found together, embedded in this 

 same gelatinous substance. The mass is often 

 supported in the water by being attached to some 

 weed stem or submerged branch of a tree. The 

 young are abandoned by their parents at this stage 

 of their existence. As the sun warms the water 

 the eggs feel its quickening force and develop- 

 ment begins. In the course of a week or two 

 the tiny tadpoles squirm free from their envelopes 

 and swim away into the pond. They are now 

 true aquatic animals and, if removed, would die as 

 quickly as one of us would if forced to exchange 

 places with them. Unlike their progenitors, they 

 prefer a vegetable diet and nibble away content- 

 edly upon whatever soft decaying leaves they find 

 in their wanderings. A whole pond to circle 

 about in must seem a mighty big world to a polli- 

 wog newly hatched from a thimbleful of jelly. 

 What adventures, what hairbreadth escapes, what 

 boon companions he meets with ! 



The polliwog has no family ties. He wots noth- 

 ing of brothers and sisters. All polliwogs look alike 

 to him. The tadpole has no bringing up. He 



