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THE FROG TRIBE. 



THE animals that compose this tribe feed on in- 

 sects and worms, residing principally on the ground, 

 or partly in water, in dark and unfrequented places, 

 from whence they crawl forth only in the night. 

 Many of them have an aspect very disgusting and 

 unpleasant. Some, however, less unpleasant to the 

 sight, are furnished with slender limbs, and have 

 their toes terminated by flat circularly expanded 

 tips, which enable them to adhere at pleasure to the 

 surfaces of even the smoothest bodies : these reside 

 generally in the trees, where they adhere to the 

 lower sides of the leaves or branches. — None of 

 them drink, but all the species absorb moisture 

 through the skin. 



They are all oviparous, and the eggs are perfectly 

 gelatinous. From the egg proceeds a Tadpole 

 without feet, but furnished with a tail to aid its mo- 

 tion in the water : this drops off as the legs become 

 protruded. In this imperfect state, the animals 

 have also a sort of gills or subsidiary lungs ; and 

 several of them a small tube on the lower lip, by 

 means of which they can fix themselves to bodies 

 to eat, or perform other functions. They all arrive 

 at maturity about their fourth year, and very few 

 outlive the age often or twelve. 



The full-grown animals have four feet, and their 

 body is not covered with either plates or scales, but 



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