98 COMMON FROG. 



with very strong and vivid variegations of a deeper 

 colour on the back and limbs, while the lower 

 parts are yellow, spotted, and marked with light 

 red. It is chiefly in gardens that the Frog is 

 found thus coloured ; but as this, like every other 

 species, is in the habit of casting its skin frequently, 

 the cuticle falling off in a somewhat irregular 

 manner on different parts of the body, it of course 

 varies considerably at intervals as to the bright- 

 ness or intensity of its colours. 



The form of the Frog is light and elegant, and 

 its appearance lively ; the limbs finely calculated 

 for the peculiar motions of the animal, and the 

 hind feet strongly webbed, to assist its progress 

 in the water, to which it occasionally retires dur- 

 ing the heats of summer, and again during the 

 frosts of winter, when it lies in a state of tor- 

 pidity, either deeply plunged in the soft mud at 

 the bottom of stagnant waters, or in the hollows 

 beneath their banks, till it is awakened from its 

 slumber by the return of spring. 



It is generally in the month of March that the 

 Frog deposits its ova or spawn, consisting of a large 

 heap or clustered mass of gelatinous transparent 

 eggs, in each of which is imbedded the embryo, 

 or tadpole, in the form of a round, black globule. 

 The spawn commonly lies more than a month*, or 

 sometimes five weeks, before the larvae or tadpoles 

 are hatched from it, and during this period each 

 egg gradually enlarges in size, and a few days be- 



* This time varies considerably, according to the heat of the 

 weather and other circumstances. 



