136 EDGE OF THE JUNGLE 



flagellating tail, connected by a pinwheel of in- 

 testine, are scant material wherewith to attempt 

 new experiments, whereon to nourish aspirations. 

 Yet the Redfins, as typified by Guinevere, have 

 done both, and given time enough, they may emu- 

 late or surpass the achievements of larval axo- 

 lotls, or the astounding egg-producing maggots 

 of certain gnats, thus realizing all the possibil- 

 ities of froghood while yet cribbed within the 

 lowly casing of a pollywog. 



In the first place Guinevere had ceased being 

 positively thigmotactic, and, writing as a tech- 

 nical herpetologist, I need add no more. In 

 fact, all my readers, whether Batrachologists or 

 Casuals, will agree that this is an unheard-of 

 achievement. But before I loosen the technical 

 etymology and become casually more explicit, let 

 me hold this term in suspense a moment, as I 

 once did, fascinated by the sheer sound of the syl- 

 lables, as they first came to my ears years ago in 

 a university lecture. There is that of possibility 

 in being positively thigmotactic which makes one 

 dread the necessity of exposing and limiting its 

 meaning, of digging down to its mathematically 

 accurate roots. It could never be called a flower 

 of speech: it is an over-ripe fruit rather: heavy- 



