( 265 ) 



O.N THE ORIGIN OF THE EDIBLE FROG IN ENGLAND. 



By G. a. Boulengek. 



We need go no farther back than 1844 for the first certain 

 record of the occurrence of this frog in England. Mr. F. Bond, 

 in 'The Zoologist' for 1844 (p. 293), mentions the discovery of 

 Rana esculcnta by Mr. C. Thurnall, of Duxford, in Foulmire Fen, 

 Cambridgeshire, in September, 1843. At the meeting of July 9th, 

 1844, Yarrell exhibited specimens on behalf of Mr. Bond, which 

 were presented to the British Museum ; others were presented by 

 Mr. Bond to the Zoological Society, subsequently transferred to 

 the British Museum ; others again were deposited at the same 

 time in the Museum of the University of Cambridge. It is 

 fortunate that several specimens of the Edible Frog as originally 

 discovered in Foulmire should have been preserved, for a few 

 years later the fen was drained, and these frogs appear to have 

 entirely disappeared from Cambridgeshire. 



Although, as just stated, the first certain reference to the 

 Edible Frog in England is dated 1844, two old authors give the 

 animal as British — Pennant (' British Zoology,' iii. p. 13, 1776), 

 without reference to any locality, and Shaw (' General Zoology,' 

 iii. p. 103, 1802) as " rare in England." And Pennant has a note 

 on the Common Frog (p. 11), which, it would seem, applies only 

 to the Edible Frog : — " The croaking of frogs is well known, and 

 from that in fenny countries they are distinguished b}^ ludicrous 

 titles ; thus they are styled ' Dutch Nightingales ' and ' Boston 

 Waits.' " 



It is also important to learn from Bell, in the second edition 

 of his 'British Keptiles,' and in a letter published in 'The 

 Zoologist' for 1859 (p. 6565), that his father, who was a native 

 of Cambridgeshire, had described to him, as long as be could 

 recollect, the peculiarly loud and somewhat musical sound uttered 

 by the frogs of Whaddon and Foulmire, which procured for them 

 the name of "Whaddon Organs." These references, however, to 

 voice only appear to me to be quite insufficient to prove the 

 ancient existence of the Edible Frog in England, for it must be 

 borne in mind that the Natterjack Toad, Bufo calamita, which no 

 doubt inhabited the same fens, produces a very loud croak from 

 the holes and fissures in the clay in which it remains concealed 



