'56 



THE COMMON FROG. 



This species is exceedingly active, making leaps of eight or ten feet in length and 

 five feet in height. There is a well-known story of a race between a Bull-Frog and an 

 Indian, the former to have three jumps in advance, and the distance about forty yards 

 to a pond from which the Frog had been taken. When the parties were ready to 

 start, the glowing tip of a burning stick was applied to the Bull-Frog, which set off at 

 such a rate, and made such astonishing leaps to get into the welcome water, that its 

 human opponent was vanquished in the race. 



In some places this creature is never disturbed, as it is supposed, perhaps with 

 some justice, to aid in keeping the water pure. The popular name of Bull- Frog is de- 

 rived from its cry, which is said to resemble the bellowing of the animal whose name 

 it bears. Several species of Frog have been classed under the same popular name. 



The color of the Bull- Frog is brown, mottled with black above, and taking a greener 

 hue upon the head. The abdomen is grayish white, and the throat is white dotted 

 with green. The length of the head and body of the large species is rather more than 



BULL-FROG. Kaaa tnugiens. 



six inches, and a fine specimen will sometimes measure nineteen or twenty inches 

 from the nose to the extremity of its feet. The skin of the back is smooth, and with- 

 out any longitudinal fold. 



THERE is another tolerably common species inhabiting the same country, which is 

 also popularly called the Bull-Frog, but is known among men of science as Ranci 

 d&mitans. It may be readily distinguished from the bull- Frog, which it otherwise 

 greatly resembles, by the presence of a glandular fold on each side of the back. It is 

 a very noisy creature, with a sharper and more yelping cry than the preceding species. 

 When disturbed, it shoots at once into the water, and there sets up its peculiar cry. 

 It is more active than the common bull-Frog, and if once released, is almost certain 

 to escape, from the great length and rapidity of its leaps, the creature never seeming 

 to pause between two jumps, but springing off the earth with an instantaneous rebound 

 not unlike the flying leaps of the jerboa or kangaroo. It is a moisture-loving species, 

 and is never found far from water. 



WE now come to the best known of all the batrachians, the COMMON FROG of 

 Europe. 



