THE STUDY OF AMPHIBIANS 



123 



Our British newts are aquatic when young and at the breed- 

 ing season, at other times they become terrestrial. The males 

 develop a high median crest at the breeding time. Newts feed on 

 insects, centipedes, earthworms, slugs, and the like, and hunt 

 mostly at nights. The eggs are laid singly or in small groups 

 on stones or plants in the water, and hatch in about a fort- 

 night. The larvae are not nearly so unlike the adults as tad- 

 poles are unlike frogs; thus there is much less of a metamor- 

 phosis, the chief change being the absorption of the gills, the 

 closing of the gill-clefts, the disappearance of the gill-chamber 

 and of the delicate fringe round the tail. 



THE LIVING FROG 



When the common frog is caught it resents this wildly, and 

 even in the seclusion of a vivarium it continues to attempt the 

 impossible. In a few days it becomes fairly tame, and may then 

 be more profitably studied. 

 It grows accustomed to being 

 handled, and will take living 

 maggots or small earthworms 

 dangled before it. 



The frog is characteristic- 

 ally a jumping animal, but 

 it sometimes crawls along. It 

 swims well, but it spends 

 most of its time on land. It 

 feeds on insects, slugs, and 

 earthworms, catching these 

 by rapidly throwing out the 



FlG. 38. The common frogRana temporaria. 

 The drum of the ear, flush with the skin, is 

 seen behind the eye. A double hump on 

 the back shows where the hip girdle is 

 attached to the last free vertebra. In the 

 figure the ankle-joint is raised high off the 

 ground, showing the very long foot. 



tongue, which is loose behind 



and fixed to the middle of 



the lower jaw in front. Just 



before the deft act of capture 



the frog reveals some excitement in the rapid movements of the 



floor of the mouth. 



Observations should be made on the resting frog as it sits 



