90 REPTILIAN WATER TRESPASSERS. 



concerted one day to find that my pets were dead, and 

 had some difficulty in understanding that a Frog or 

 Toad could be drowned. 



There is an artificial bathing-place near where I 

 live. It is a large oblong basin, lined with cement, 

 and so arranged that the water cannot rise within a 

 foot or so of the edge. Towards the end of summer, 

 there are numbers of dead frogs and toads in the basin. 

 They have heedlessly leaped into the water, and not 

 being able to clamber up the side, have been 

 drowned. 



It may be that in these cases the death of the 

 animals may be partly owing to hunger; and this 

 brings us to another point in the history of these water 

 trespassers. 



In the case of the newts, the creature obtains its 

 food in the water, through which it propels itself by 

 the sinuous movements of its body. Large limbs 

 would therefore be useless, and, in fact, would only be 

 an inconvenience in the water, while they would be of 

 no great use on the land. Whenever the newt goes 

 out of the water, it does not need to hurry itself, and 

 the four slight limbs with which it is furnished are 

 quite sufficient for its purpose. 



But the Frogs and Toads are differently constituted, 

 They have to procure their food on the shore, as well 

 as to propel themselves in the water, and it is evident 

 that the whole plan of their locomotive machinery must 

 be entirely changed. Legs are therefore substituted 

 for the tail as means of progression, and the latter is 

 therefore abolished altogether. Another problem now 

 remains i.e., to form legs which will be equally 



