334 JOURNAL, BOMB A Y NA TURAL EISTOR Y SOCIETY, Vol. IX. 



MISCELLANEOUS NOTES. 



No. I.— FOOD OF THE BULL-FROG. 



I am very anxious to learn if it is a common thing for frogs to attack and 

 eat other reptiles. 



During the Pooja holidays I had occasion to go into the garden, at about 

 3 p.m., and on stepping out startled a lizard which ran across the path, when 

 it was met half-way by a frog, who with one bound seized and swallowed it. 

 I followed the frog and found him under a bush close by, with about an inch 

 of the lizard's tail protruding from his mouth, and by the time I had caught 

 him ths lizard had quite disappeared, and the frog was apparently perfectly 

 comfortable. I tried to force his mouth open to make him disgorge the lizard, 

 but he kept his jaws clenched so tight that I was unable to do so, and not 

 wishing to hurt him, I let him go. The frog was one of the ordinary dark 

 green ones, with a yellow line right down the centre of his back, and the 

 victim was a common garden lizard. 



A few nights later, I was watching one of these frogs under a table in the 

 drawing-room, when a toad, about half his size, hopped towards him, and 

 was immediately disposed of in the same way as the lizard, but was apparently 

 more restless and less tasty, and it struck me that the frog, on this occasion 

 acting on impulse, had swallowed his plump little cousin by mistake. Imme- 

 diately after swallowing the toad he began to show signs of great discomfort, 

 and struggled hard to evict the unwelcome tenant, and after almost standing 

 on his head, and pawing at his mouth for about a minute, his jaws suddenly 

 seemed to spring open and out came the toad, covered with saliva (probably 

 of his own production, and the cause of his eviction), and beyond the fact 

 of his displaying more activity than is usual in toads, he seemed none the 

 worse for his forced visit. 



I shall be very glad to know if the food of the Bull-frog has been recorded, 

 as, during the 14 years that I have spent in this country, I have never witnessed 

 a case of this sort, and was under the impression that frogs fed entirely 

 on insects. 



I may mention that I forwarded a specimen of these frogs to the Superin- 

 tendent of the Calcutta Museum, who informs me that it is the common Indian 

 Bull- frog, Rana tigrina. 



J. DUNDAS WHIFFIN. 



RoURKELA, SlNGBHOOM, B. N. R* 



