310 THE FROG. 



tures fall to the bottom ; while others remain swimming in 

 the fluid around them, while their vivacity and motion is 

 seen to increase. Those which fall to the bottom remain 

 there the whole day; but having lengthened themselves a 

 little, for hitherto they are doubled up, they mount at in- 

 tervals to the mucus which they had quitted, and are seen 

 to feed upon it with great vivacity. The next day they 

 acquire their tadpole form. In three days more they are 

 perceived to have two little fringes, that serve as fins, be- 

 neath the head ; and these, in four days after, assume a 

 more perfect form. It is then, also, that they are seen to 

 feed very greedily upon the pond-weed with which they 

 are to be supplied ; and, leaving their former food, on this 

 they continue to subsist till they arrive at maturity. When 

 they come to be ninety-two days old, two small feet are 

 seen beginning to bourgeon near the tail : and the head ap- 

 pears to be separate from the body. The next day, the 

 legs are considerably enlarged : four days after, they re- 

 fuse all vegetable food ; their mouth appears furnished 

 with teeth ; and their hinder-legs are completely formed. 

 In two days more the arms are completely produced ; and 

 now the Frog is every way perfect, except that it still con- 

 tinues to carry the tail. In this odd situation the animal, 

 resembling at once both a frog and a lizard, is seen fre- 

 quently rising to the surface, not to take food, but to 

 breathe. In this state it continues for about six or eight 

 hours, and then, the tail dropping off by degrees, the ani- 

 mal appears in its most perfect form. 



Thus the Frog, in less than a day, having changed its 

 figure, is seen to change its appetites also. So extraordi- 

 nary is this transformation, that the food it fed upon so 

 greedily but a few da}^s before, is now utterly rejected ; it 

 would even starve if supplied with no other. As soon as 

 the animal acquires its perfect state, from having fed upon 

 vegetables, it becon es carnivorous, and lives entirely upon 

 worms and insects. But as the water cannot supply these, 



