PARADOXICAL FROG. 121 



or shortest toe is an oblong callus, resembling an 

 additional or spurious toe. The upper jaw is be- 

 set with a row of small denticulations ; and the 

 male is, according to Mr. Schneider, furnished 

 with a gular vesicle, as in some of the European 

 species. 



The tadpole of this Frog, from its very large size, 

 the strong and muscular appearance of the tail, 

 and the ambiguous aspect which it exhibits in the 

 latter part of its progress toward its complete or 

 ultimate form, has long continued to constitute, as 

 it were, the paradox of European naturalists; who, 

 however strong and well-grounded their suspicions 

 might be relative to its real nature, and the mis- 

 take of most describers, were yet obliged, in some 

 measure, to acquiesce in the general testimony of 

 those who had seen it in its native Abaters, and who 

 declared it to be at length transmuted, not into a 

 frog, but a fish ! and it was even added by some, 

 that it afterwards reverted to its tadpole form 

 again ! ! That it is really no other than a frog in its 

 larva or tadpole state, will be evident to every one 

 who considers its structure ; and more especially, 

 if it be collated with the tadpole even of some 

 European Frogs ; for instance, that of the Rana 

 alliacea, which the reader will find represented in its 

 natural size on a plate accompanying the descrip- 

 tion of that species. Like our European tadpoles, 

 this animal, according to the more or less ad- 

 vanced state in which it is found, is furnished 

 either with all the four legs, or with only the two 

 hinder ones : it also sometimes happens that in the 



