244 THE AMPHIBIA 



creature. Its front limbs are small and ill-developed, and bear 

 four digits each ; and it has no hind legs. On each side of its neck 

 it has three very visible gills, increasing in size from the first to 

 the third, and bearing branchial outgrowths. Its eyes are small and 

 covered with skin, and the lungs are bag-like and long. This 

 Siren frequents the rice-fields, where it probably does good service, 

 as its food appears to consist of aquatic insects and worms. It 

 burrows in the soft, moist mud, sometimes leaving this favourite 

 situation to swim rapidly in the water of the ditches, or to wander 

 over the dryer land. 



The eel-shaped Proteus is found in Carniola and Dalmatia, in 

 the great underground damp caves and subterranean lakes and 

 streams of those interesting districts. When swimming, the 

 Proteus has somewhat the appearance of a lizard, with small fore 

 and hind limbs, and a tuft of branchiae on either side of the neck. 

 It is over a foot in length, and about as thick as a man's finger ; 

 it possesses rudimentary lungs. 



The order Anura contains the tail-less Amphibia, the Frogs 

 and Toads. Nearly all pass through a visible metamorphosis, the 

 young emerging from the egg as tadpoles with external gills, 

 and leading an aquatic life, existing very much after the fashion 

 of fishes, moving and breathing like them, until the fore and hind 

 limbs and lungs are developed. They then come to land and become 

 air-breathers, crawling and leaping about in search of the insects, 

 slugs, and worms upon which they live. It is the largest order of 

 existing Amphibia, and contains about 900 species. 



The Common Frog (Rana temporaries) is greenish-brown in colour, 

 and is to be found in almost all parts of Great Britain, so that it 

 is probably the most familiar of our native Amphibia. Its habits 

 are distinctly terrestrial, frequenting damp meadows and ditches, 

 but, according to Bell, sinking to the bottom of the ponds on the 

 approach of winter, spending the winter months in a torpid con- 

 dition in the mud, safe from the reach of frost; With the return 

 of spring they come forth, and the egg-laying soon begins, every 

 pond and ditch containing masses of the familiar gelatinous 

 spawn: 



The Edible Frog (Rana esculenta), common on the Continent, 

 is found in Cambridgeshire and Norfolk, and is much more aquatic 

 in its habits than the Common Frog, from which it can be distin- 



