Part 11. in tieCRnATio"^. 317 



fome Woods^ Ditches^ and fuch like cool Places in 

 their Fronts and from large Ponds in their Rear; 

 I tracd them backwards^ even to the very fide of 

 c?ie of the Po?ids \ thefe Ponds in fpawning'time aU 

 ivays usd to abound much with Frogs, whofe croak- 

 ing I have heard at a confderable dijiancc y and a 

 great deal of Spawn I have found there. 



From thefe Circumjlances I concluded that this 

 vaji Colony was bred in tbofe Ponds, from whence^ 

 ward they Jieerd their Courfe-, that after their In- 

 cubation (if I may fo call it) or hatching by the Sun^ 

 and their having fafs'd their Tadpole State, they 

 had livd (till that time of their Migration) in the 

 Waters, or rather on the Shore, among the Flags^ 

 Rujhes, and long Grafs 5 but now being i?ivited out 

 by the refrejhing Showers, then newly fallen, which 

 made the Earth cool and moifi for their March, that 

 they left their old Latibula, where perhaps they had 

 devour d all their proper Food, and were now in 

 purfuit of Food, or a more convenient Habitation^ 



This I think not only reafonable to be concluded^ 



but withal fo eafy to have been difcoverd by any in- 



quifitive Obferver, who in former Times met with 



the like Appearance, that I cannot but admire that 



fuch fagacious Philofophers as Ariftotle, Pliny, and 



many other fnce, Jhould ever imagine Frogs to fall 



from the Clouds, or be any way injiantaneoufiy^ or 



fpontaneoufly generated, efpecially confidering how 



^ openly they aH their Coition, produce Spawn^ this 



Spawn Tadpoles, and Tadpoles Frogs. 



Neither 



