266 ANURA 



CHAP. 



Fen in Cambridgeshire, near Stow Bedon, and between Thetford 

 and Scoulton in Norfolk, and are generally supposed to have 

 been introduced from France, belong to the Italian form of var. 

 lessonae. " It used to be found in Cambridgeshire, in Foulmire 

 Fen, where it was discovered in 1844 ; and Bell 1 assures us that 

 his father, who was a native of Cambridgeshire, had noticed 

 the presence of these frogs many years before at Whaddon and 

 Foulmire, where they were known from their loud croak as 

 ' Whaddon organs ' and ' Dutch nightingales.' The species was 

 afterwards rediscovered in Norfolk, between Thetford and Scoulton, 

 where it is now still very abundant, and from inquiries made by 

 Lord Walsingham, must have existed for the last seventy (80) 

 years at least. These frogs belong to the var. lessonae, and differ 

 widely (by the much stronger inner metatarsal tubercle) from 

 those found in a few other places in Norfolk, which are un- 

 doubtedly the descendants of a number imported from France 

 and Belgium in 1837, 1841, and 1842, and turned loose in the 

 Fens at Foulden and in the neighbourhood. . . . Within the last 

 ten years large numbers of all the three forms have been imported 

 from Brussels, Berlin, and Italy, and liberated in various localities 

 in West Surrey and Hampshire. Berlin specimens of the var. 

 ridibunda have also been introduced in Bedfordshire, and Italian 

 ones in Oxfordshire." 2 



Leaving aside the question whether the so-called var. lessonae 

 is merely sporadically developed out of the typical form, the 

 inquiry of the possible origin of the English specimens of the var. 

 lessonae is of special interest. Have they been introduced, as has 

 been suggested, from Lombardy, or are they the last lingering 

 descendants of native English frogs ? The suggestion as to their 

 Italian origin has naturally lost in value since similar specimens 

 have been found in Belgium and near Paris ; but we must remember 

 that there existed considerable intercourse between East Anglia 

 and the monks of Lombardy, who, to mention only one instance, 

 came regularly to the old Priory of Chesterton, near Cambridge, 

 in order to collect their rents. If the frogs were introduced by 

 them for culinary purposes into various suitable localities their 

 descendants would remain as local as they, and as the undoubtedly 

 introduced French typical specimens actually are. On the other 



1 British Reptiles, 2nd ed. 1849, p. 110. 



2 Boulenger, "Tailless Batrach. of Europe," pt. ii. p. 287, Ray Society. 1897. 



