Reptiles and Batrachians of the Edinburgh District. 509 
a few, I am informed, are killed every year. When staying 
at Callander a couple of years ago I had several other haunts 
in that neighbourhood indicated to me, and of course many 
strange stories of encounters with the reptiles are there 
current. A particularly ferocious one, which. struck terror 
into the heart of my informant, was declared to whistle 
loudly, and to have a mane along its back! The only 
example of the reddish-brown variety I have been able to 
hear of was killed a few years ago in a ploughed field a mile 
or two from Callander. 
Clas BATRACHIA., 
Order ECAUDATA. 
RANA TEMPORARIA, L. CoMMON Froa. 
The Frog is our most common and generally distributed 
Batrachian, being abundant almost everywhere from sea- 
level to the most upland localities, and appearing as much 
at home in a ditch or pool on the bleak moorlands of the 
western Pentlands as in a marsh in a genial spot by the 
shores of the Forth. 
The spawn is usually deposited during the second or third 
week of March, shortly after the first warm days of spring have 
awakened the animals from their hibernation in the mud; but 
the time varies a little, of course, according to the nature of 
the season. This year, on 17th March, I observed a quantity 
on Pomathorn Moor, near Penicuik, frozen solid by the frost 
of the previous night—an experience which it often undergoes 
apparently without harm, If there be a number of Frogs in 
a pond it will be found that during the spawning season the 
bulk of them congregate at one spot. In this way many 
clusters of spawn are frequently to be seen joined together, 
forming a large continuous mass. One such mass which I 
measured in Drumshoreland Curling-Pond was roughly 
8 yards long by 3 broad. The number of ova in a cluster 
deposited by a female in my aquarium was estimated at about 
1400; but this number would appear to be much under the 
average, and is often greatly exceeded. Mr L. Greening 
