

CHAPTER VI. 

 "THE TUNEFUL FROG? 



" From the hay-cock's moistened heaps 

 Startled frogs take vaunting leaps ; 

 And along the drewen mead, 

 Jumping travellers they proceed ; 

 Quick the dewy grass divides, 

 Moistening sweet their speckled sides ; 

 From the grass or flowret's cup 

 Quick the dew-drop bounces up." Clare. 



" A LONG line is run to make a frog " by which Sir Thomas 

 Browne pleasantly expresses his admiration of the series of 

 metamorphoses by which the frog arrives at complete indi- 

 viduality. First of all, that " lentous and transparent body," 

 full of "little conglobulations," which we call spawn : 



' ' Ere yet with wavy tail the tadpole swims, 

 Breathes with new lungs, or tries his nascent limbs, 

 Her countless shoals the amphibious frog forsakes, 

 And living islands float upon the lakes." 



And then the " porwigle " or " tadpole," all tail and head. 

 By-and-by the thing sprouts two hind legs, still keeping its 

 long caudal appendage. 



' ' So still the tadpole cleaves the watery vale 

 With balanc'd fin and undulating tail." 



Next it grows its fore-legs, and swims about as a long-tailed 

 froglet. Then we see it sitting on the bank with only a 

 short stumpy tail. Return two days later, and, lo ! the tail 



has gone altogether, and a tiny "frog" is there. 



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