"The Common Toad is a much maligned, entirely inoffensive, and withal very 



useful creature." 



THE COMMON FROG AND COMMON TOAD 



T 



HE Common Frog, although 

 a lowly creature to be found 

 numerously in every part 

 of our country, has a most 

 interesting life history. Its 

 metamorphosis from the 

 tiny egg to the perfect 

 amphibian forms a fascin- 

 ating story. 



In the spring males and females for- 

 gather in ponds, ditches and sluggish 

 streams to sing their hoarse love songs 

 and propagate their species. When the 

 spawn has been deposited by the female 

 it is left to the vitalising processes of 

 Nature, and the young at no stage of 

 their changeful career receive any kind 

 of parental care. 



The masses of eggs are always laid in 

 water, and Bell says that at a tempera- 

 ture of 73.4 Fahr. the tadpoles are 

 hatched in the short space of four days, 

 but, as in the case of trout, the lower 



the temperature the longer the process 

 is delayed. In the ordinary course of 

 things a month is about the usual time 

 occupied in this country. 



In the tadpole stage Frogs have gills 

 and lead a fish-like life, but as soon as 

 the legs have developed and the tail 

 disappeared they come to land and 

 breathe air by means of lungs. Thus 

 we see what an astonishing change in the 

 organs of circulation must take place. 



The breathing process in a Frog is 

 very peculiar. The air is taken into the 

 mouth by means of the nostrils, and 

 reaches the lungs by being swallowed. 

 Thus suffocation would be produced if 

 the creature got anything fixed in its 

 mouth in such a position as to keep the 

 jaws apart. 



Frogs feed upon slugs, beetles, worms 

 and insects, and may be ranked amongst 

 the gardener's best friends. 



When the cold winds of autumn com- 



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