JANUARY. 31 



am not aware that it ever preys. Possibly, being omniv- 

 orous, opossums are fond of frogs, and yet I doubt their 

 ability to catch them, except by mere chance. But this 

 is all vain speculation. It would not be strange if this 

 particular marsupial differed from his fellows in such 

 matters as that of food. Tastes vary among the lower 

 animals, as among mankind, and one in a thousand opos- 

 sums might have a fancy for frogs and the cunning neces- 

 sary to capture them, and the fact escape notice. Fixed 

 habits are few ; the whims of individual tastes are countless. 

 The frogs in the spring were not disconcerted by my 

 presence, and many remained sunning themselves, squatted 

 upon every object that would sustain their weight and 

 which reached above the water. Some were mottled, 

 others of a nearly uniform green or brown. Some were 

 large, and many more were quite small ; and all were sleek 

 and plump as you would expect to find them in midsum- 

 mer. Either fasting had not decreased their bulk or they 

 broke their fast at intervals during the winter. Both sug- 

 gestions, I think, are true. I stretched forth my hand to 

 take up these frogs, one after the other, but all objected, 

 moving backward into the deep water with a crab-like 

 celerity and grace. Not one of them turned his back on me 

 and dived ; but all simply withdrew, and, to my surprise, 

 always to a position quite out of reach, suggesting that they 

 measured the distance while en route. I have always held 

 that frogs were witless, so I suppose that it was all mere 

 coincidence. A few of these to-day were not content 

 with deep water, but passed on down into the loose sand. 

 Another possible coincidence, but I think not, was that 

 the deep green aquatic growths waving ceaselessly from 

 the sides of many of the half-rotten staves found no favor 

 with the frogs as a place of concealment. Neither then 

 nor since have I found any of them among them, while 

 they often rested upon the bare wood, and were, of course, 



