316 RAMBLES ABOUT HOME. 



ing its mental capabilities. The habits of the animal, as 

 described by Agassiz and Putnam, would lead one to con- 

 clude that intellectually they are to be classed with the 

 common toad. The tree-toad, or Ilyla, being crepuscu- 

 lar in habits, was found difficult to study, and nothing 

 was determined that bore upon the question of its intel- 

 lectual capacity. I can but state my impression, which 

 is, that they are not so cunning as the common toad. 



Oil the other hand, I am pained to confess that my 

 many observations and experiments with the several spe- 

 cies of true frogs found here, conducted without an inter- 

 mission for four months, have yielded but little evidence 

 that these creatures possess a particle of intelligence. It 

 almost proved, indeed, to be labor lost 

 To perch upon a slippery log, 

 And sit in judgment on a frog. 



Mr. Romanes remarks that, if frogs are removed to a 

 long distance from water, they will take the shortest route 

 to the nearest pool or brook. Even this, I find, is only 

 usually true. Quite ten per cent of such "removed" 

 frogs started off, when released, in the direction of the 

 most distant water, rather than that which was nearest. 

 One of my many experiments was as follows : I placed a 

 pail filled with water in a dry, dusty field, burying it to 

 the brim. It was protected by a cap of coarse wire siev- 

 ing. I then liberated a frog within twenty yards of it. 

 It hopped in the opposite direction toward water nearly 

 three hundred yards distant. I then placed a frog on 

 the opposite side of the buried pail, so that the distant 

 brook could only be approached by passing near or directly 

 over it, if the frog took a direct course. This the frog 

 did, and less than a score of leaps brought it to the water 

 covered by the sieve. It seemed quite satisfied with the 

 fact that a little water was in sight, although out of reach. 



