334 LAKES AND STREAMS 



and can leap a distance of a foot or more ; it digs energetically with its strong 

 hind-legs, and swims well with its head bent low in the water. When pursued, it 

 will endeavour to escape by a succession of leaps, and if caught tries to free itself 

 by kicking with its hind-legs against the hand by which it is held. A fairly lively 

 animal, it does not easily accustom itself to captivity, although it will learn, sooner 

 or later, to know its keeper and take food, such as earth-worms and flies, out of 

 his hand. From others of its kind the male is distinguished by its unusually 

 numerous variations of voice, which have been likened to a melodious trill, 

 the bleating of a goat, the chirping of a cricket, the song of the nightingale, 

 and the grunting of a pig. The only utterance of the female, is, however, a 

 gentle squeak, uttered when in distress. Notwithstanding its love of water, the 

 green toad passes its winter-sleep in holes in the ground, on the banks of ponds, 

 or in cellars and such-like places; the torpor usually lasting from September or 

 October until April or May. 



Hre-Beiiied Of the fire-bellied frog (Bombinator igneus) there appear to 



Frog-. b e £ wo l oca l races. One of these races {B. igneus pachypus), the 

 yellow-bellied frog, best known under the name of mountain-frog, has a compactly 

 shaped body, and the lower part of the leg as long as the foot without the toes. 

 The upper-parts are clay-coloured or yellowish brown, without black spots ; while 

 the under-parts are sulphur or orange yellow dotted with greyish blue spots, the 

 tips of the toes being yellow. The other race, which may be called the fire-bellied 

 frog of the plains, is more slender in build, with the lower part of the leg shorter 

 than the foot measured from the little toe. Above, this frog is dark grey or 

 brown, with two small round green spots between the shoulders; beneath, it is 

 bluish black spotted with white, and orange or vermilion shading to carmine, 

 the tips of the toes being black. The plains race is not so large as the mountain 

 form, which is the western and southern type, the other being restricted to the 

 east and north of Europe. The western or mountain form has hitherto been 

 found in France, Belgium, Holland, Luxemburg, the mountainous and hilly dis- 

 tricts of central and southern Germany, Switzerland, upper and central Italy, the 

 Tyrol, and other parts of the Austrian Alps, Dalmatia, Bosnia, Montenegro, 

 Hungary, Transylvania, and Rumania. The eastern or plains form, on the other 

 hand, occurs in southern Sweden, Denmark, the plains of north Germany, Bohemia, 

 lower Austria, Hungary, Transylvania, Rumania, and central Russia. These 

 frogs live, in larger or smaller numbers, in such fish - ponds and pools as 

 have the bottom covered with fallen leaves and decomposing vegetable-matter; 

 being found there both before entering their winter-quarters and after their 

 return. They also frequent marshes, fens, and peat-bogs : but in respect of 

 " station " the two forms present a certain difference, the mountain-race, although 

 preferring stagnant waters of smaller extent, also inhabiting back-waters and 

 disused courses of rivers and brooks, and in mountain districts even frequenting 

 clear cold springs and the streams which flow from them. In the water both 

 forms are generally to be seen not far from the bank, with the head above the 

 surface ; but they leave their watery home for a short time in the evening, or 

 early morning, in order to obtain food, which consists chiefly of earth-worms, and 

 in dull and rainy weather may be abroad throughout the day. In the ordinary 



