'314 THE FROG. 



plain an opinion which some entertain, that there is a 

 month in the year, called Paddock Moon, in which the 

 Frogs never croak : the whole seems to be no more than 

 that, in the hot season, when the moisture is dried away, 

 and consequently, when these animals neither enjoy the 

 quantity of health or food that at other times they are sup- 

 plied with, they show, by their silence, how much they 

 are displeased with the weather. All very dry weather is 

 hurtful to their health, and prevents them from getting their 

 prey. They subsist chiefly upon worms and snails ; and 

 as drought prevents these from appearing, the Frog is thus 

 stinted in its provisions, and also wants that grateful 

 humidity which moistens its skin, and renders it alert and 

 active. 



As Frogs adhere closely to the backs of their own spe- 

 cies, so it has been found, by repeated experience, they 

 will also adhere to the backs of fishes. Few that have 

 ponds, but know that these animals will stick to the backs 

 of carp, and fix their fingers in the corner of each eye. In 

 this manner they are often caught together ; the carp 

 blinded and wasted away. Whether this proceeds from 

 the desires of the Frog, disappointed of its proper mate, or 

 .whether it be a natural enmity between Frogs and fishes, 

 I will not take upon me to say. A story told us by Wal- 

 ton, might be apt to incline us to the latter opinion. 



" As Dubravius, a bishop of Bohemia, was walking 

 with a friend by a large pond in that country, they saw a 

 Frog, when a pike lay very sleepily and quiet by the shore 

 side, leap upon his head, and the Frog having expressed 

 malice or anger by his swollen cheeks and staring eyes, 

 did stretch out his legs, and embraced the pike's head, 

 and presently reached them to his eyes, tearing with them 

 and his teeth thosf3 tender parts ; the pike, irritated with 

 anguish, moves up and down the water, and rubs himself 

 against weeds, and whatever he thought might quit him 

 of his enemy ; but all in vain, for the Frog did continue to 



