154 NATURAL HISTORY [Reptiles. 



body shrinks from its roundish figure, and the loins are form- 

 ed. The fore-feet are then thrust out by degrees, and the crea- 

 ture having no more need of its tail it disappears, and the 

 new animal leaves its watery habitation for the land, to which, 

 however, it is not so closely confined but it can visit its first 

 abode. The tail of a tadpole makes an excellent object in 

 the solar microscope, and serves much better for illustrating 

 the long-disputed proposition concerning the circulation of 

 the blood, than those cruel operations often performed upon 

 the larger animals, with neither half the pleasure nor satisfac- 

 tion, for here it is rendered as visible, and conveyed to us in 

 as direct a manner as our senses can. 



The frog is so common an animal as to need no description, 

 though not here very common in its frog state, owing, I sup- 

 pose, to the vast numbers of tame geese and ducks reared 

 here, which perhaps devour them. 



Species 2. The Toad. 



Bufo sive Rubetra, Rail Syn. Quad. 252. Rana Bufo, Lin. Sys. 354. Brit. 



Zool. HI. 7. Sib. Scot. 13. 



THIS species is often found in the evenings in gardens, 

 crawling in search of food no doubt ; never leaps as the frog ; 

 its appearance ugly, and in some measure terrifying. Where- 

 ever it is to be found, the same prepossession against it, all give 

 it up to destruction, and often practise the most wanton cruel- 



