The Frog.'] NATURAL HISTORY OF ORKNEY. 153 



CLASS IH.-REPTILES. 



GENUS I THE FROG. 



Gen. Char. Body naked; four legs, the feet divided into five toes; no tail. 



Species 1. The Common Frog. 



Rana aquatica, Rail Syn. Quad. 447- Lin. Sys. 377. Brit. Zool. III. 3. , 



FOUND in vast numbers in a small loch near Stromness, 

 where they deposit their spawn in the spring, which soon be- 

 comes a sort of fish-like animalculi, making its way through 

 the waters by the wriggling motion of a membranous tail. 

 The shape of it in its tadpole state is a flatted hemisphere, or 

 rather ellipse, in one end of which is placed the mouth and 

 eyes, and the other contains the tail. When the tadpoles have 

 been some days in the water, the hind legs begin to appear 

 on each side of the tail, which then begins to grow shorter ; 

 these still appear plainer, till the thighs are excluded, and the 



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