XL 

 DUTCH NIGHTINGALES. 



""PHIS is not a discourse on nightingales that sing in 

 Holland, nor indeed on any bird. When I say that a 

 Dutch nightingale is another name for a frog, Anglo- 

 Indians, whose slumbers have often been disturbed by bat- 

 rachian music, will at once appreciate the mild sarcasm 

 expressed in the appellation. Frogs are interesting for the 

 simple reason that they are the most unfortunate of animals. 

 Cruel fate has endowed the frog with a body eminently 

 fitted for dissection and for physiological experiment ; con- 

 sequently the frog has become the martyr of science. 

 Every embryo biologist, every budding medico, commences 

 his studies by dissecting a frog or two. There is quite a 

 scarcity of batrachians round some university towns. So 

 greatly are these little amphibians in demand that some 

 people make a living by catching them, the frogs thus 

 caught being subjected to many indignities before they are 

 put to death. There is in Great St. Andrew's St., Shaftes- 

 bury Avenue, London, a marvellous little shop well known 

 to all zoologists, in which are to be found animals of every 

 kind except elephants and giraffes. Frogs can be bought 

 here alive at 2d. apiece. If the purchaser be inexperi- 

 enced, he goes in unprepared and asks for a couple of frogs. 

 Before he can say " Jack Robinson " two of these luckless 

 amphibians are whipped out of a tank, and wrapped up 

 alive in a neat brown paper parcel which he is expected to 

 carry home in his pocket. It is true that the frogs do not 

 appear to mind this treatment, for, on arriving at their 

 destination, they hop out of the parcel quite gaily. The 



