FROGS AND TOADS 393 



diving and hiding under the stuff, and mayhap a few dark- 

 coloured males eye you from the weedy floor. Should you 

 leave this pool and go on, you may come across couples 

 collected in bunches that grip each other so fiercely that 

 some are at times suffocated and killed, while others have 

 lacerated armpits, and roll off, dazed and swollen, on to 

 the mass of spawn hanging to the reed-stalks, or lying on 

 the bottom of the weeds a crystalline blanket, studded with 

 black pilules. Should you try and separate the couples, you 

 can scarce do it, so closely do they cling. Later on they 

 become more alert, and will, like the toads, dive into the 

 water as you walk up to them. 



These creatures begin their croaking chorus at all hours, 

 according to the weather ; but the chorus is loudest in the 

 hottest part of the day, say at three o'clock. And this 

 croaking is kept up for a month after the love-making 

 season is over. 



All through the summer you may come across them, but 

 in autumn they vanish, hiding below the stuff in the dikes 

 and in the mud the dike-drainers and dike-cutters often 

 turning them out with the old litter in bottom fying, or 

 dig them out when trimming the shores in the winter-time. 

 In hard winters they get frozen to death, and " turn up " 

 with dead eels when the thaw sets in. 



THE LAND FROG 



Frequents grassy places, and often lies with his feet over 

 his eyes. He too, like the toad, will make a form in the 

 grass in hot weather. He is fond of worms ; and it is 

 amusing to capture one and starve him for a bit, and then 

 let him out on to the grass, placing a clean, lively worm 

 in his path. He sits there breathing hard, then his quick 

 eyes catch sight of the worm, and he gives a hop and darts 

 upon it, putting it into his mouth, and brushing the wriggling 

 creature with his fore-feet as it descends into his throat. 



