558 AMPHIBIALA. 



neck, and which being merely temporary organs, are afterward.-* 

 obliterated, as in the young of frogs and water-newts. The num- 

 ber of young produced at one birth by the salamander, is said 

 sometimes to amount to thirty or forty. 



\Latreille. Shazc. 



SECTION VI. 



Frog. Toad. 

 liana. Link. 

 This genus is also numerous, though considerably less so than 

 the preceding. The three following species are, perhaps, mostly 

 worth noticing. 



I. Common Frog. 

 Rana temporaria. Liny. 



This is the most frequent of all the European species, being al- 

 most every where seen in moist situations, or wherever it can com- 

 mand a sufficient quantity of insects, worms, &c. on which it feeds. 

 In colour it varies considerably, but its general tinge is olive-brown, 

 variegated, on the upper parts of the body and limbs, with irre- 

 gular blackish spots; those on the limbs being mostly disposed in 

 a transverse direction : beneath each eye is a longish mark or patch, 

 reaching to the setting on of the fore-legs, and which seems to form 

 one of its principal specific distinctions. 



It is generally in the month of March that the frog deposits its 

 ova or spawn, consisting of a large heap or clustered mass of gela- 

 tinous transparent eggs, in each of which is imbedded the embryo, 

 or tadpole, in the form of a round black globule. The spawn 

 commonly lies more than a month, or sometimes five weeks, before 

 the larves or tadpoles are hatched from it ; and during this period 

 each egg gradually enlarges in size, and a few days before the time 

 of exclusion, the young animals may be perceived to move about in 

 the surrounding gluten. When first hatched, they feed on the re- 

 mains of the gluten in which they were imbedded ; and in the space 

 of a few days, if narrowly examined, they will be found to be fur- 

 nished, on each side of the head, with a pair of ramified branchiae 

 or temporary organs, which again disappear after a certain space. 



