IV 

 THE BULLFROG 



WE have selected the bullfrog as one type of animal life 

 in order to introduce to our readers' notice a group of 

 animals about which we have been hitherto silent. 

 By the aid of the ape and the opossum we have 

 taken a preliminary survey of the two great groups 

 (placentals and non-placentals) which make up the 

 class of beasts. The turkey has aided us to portray the 

 general characters of the class of birds, with a side 

 glance at that of reptiles ; a group which will be here 

 glanced at once more and then reserved for fuller treat- 

 ment hereafter. 



But there is another group of animals, allied to fishes, 

 about which we have been silent, and it is this one to 

 which the bullfrog belongs. It is a group of animals 

 which, we think, must be held to constitute a class by 

 itself a class containing creatures which seem very 

 different externally, but are none the less fundamentally 

 alike. This class, the frog's class, is sometimes called the 

 class Batrachia (from the Greek word for a frog), and 

 sometimes Amphibia, from the life experiences (as to 

 breathing) which most of its members go through. We 

 shall elect the former term and speak of the members of 

 the frog class as " batrachians." 



Just as we have seen the classes of beasts and birds to 

 be each made up of orders, so also is the batrachian class 



