€98 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, Vol X, 



Many years ago my eldest brother, while out for a walk, saw a bloated- 

 looking bull-frog lying passive on the ground close to the path he was walking 

 along. As he passed it, the creature did not move ; so he struck at it and hit 

 it with his walking-stick. The result was an explosion, and the1|j;eason of the 

 frog's distended condition was revealed. He had swallowed a scorpion. 

 The scorpion was evidently alive when swallowed, otherwise the frog 

 would not have died. We put down the cause of death as " stings inflicted 

 on the internal economy of the defunct frog." It is hardly necessary to add 

 that the scorpion was dead too. 



On another occasion I was returning home from a walk. My way led me 

 past the back of the kitchen, on approaching which I became aware that some- ' 

 thing unusual was happening. An old hen who had a brood of very young 

 chickens was cackling and fluttering about in a great state of excitement. 

 I sxn-mised that a cat, a jackal, a snake or some such depredating creature was 

 the cause of her agitation. I approached with caution, so as not to scare away 

 the four-legged creature, whatever it might be, or to get close enough to de- 

 spatch the snake, if it turned out to be one. On getting up to the spot I saw 

 nothing but an apparently harmless bull-frog. I was not then enlightened as 

 to its proclivities. The frog was engaged in, what seemed to me, rather an 

 unusual operation. He was pawing (if I may so explain it) his face about. 

 This puzzled me until I got closer and then I saw what the wretch was doing. 

 The legs of a chicken were sticking out of his jaws on one side, and he was 

 trying to get them into his mouth. He departed this life suddenly, and the 

 chicken was extracted from his jaws, limp and lifeless. 



Another time I came across a bull-frog engaged in going through the 

 same antics of pawing his face {Experentia docet). I went to the rescue of the 

 chicken which, I presumed, he was making a meal of. It was not a chicken 

 this time that I took from the jaws of that dead frog, but a young, though 

 fully-fledged, specimen of the yellow-breasted ground thrush {Pitta hrachyura). 

 These three incidents occurred at Dapoli in the Southern Konkan. 



With regard to the food of the smelly little beast called erroneously the 

 " Musk-rat " it being really a shrew), I- can vouch for the fact that it attacks 

 frogs, although I have never seen an instance of it attacking a bull-frog. 

 My attention has frequently been attracted by the piteous cries or screams 

 of a frog which has apparently been seized by a snake. On going to despatch 

 the snake I have rescued the frog from the clutches, or rather teeth, of one of 

 these shrews. Frogs emit similar melancholy screams when seized by snakes, 

 and therefore it is advisable to go to the spot suitably armed with a tough 

 bamboo, cane or stick in case the marauder turns out to be a snake. A lantern 

 is a necessary adjunct at night on such occasions. 



J. A. BETHAM. 



DiNAPORE, 2S(h May, 189G. 



