500 JO URNAL, BOMB A Y NA TURAL HISTOR Y SOCIETY, Vol. IX. 

 No. XIX.— FOOD OF THE BULL-FROG. 



I observe in the last number of the Society's Journal a note by J. 

 Dundas "Whiffin on the food of the bull-frog. I thought it was generally 

 known that the food of the bull-frog is any living thing which he can get 

 outside of. If it is not, I will give examples of his fare from my own 

 experience. 



Three times at least I have known a frog try to swallow a chicken. 

 The chicken was rescued in each case while some of it was still outside, so 

 it must ever remain uncertain whether the frog could have taken in the 

 whole, or was making an attempt at what was beyond its powers. As far 

 as I remember, the chickens were at least a week or two old, in fact they 

 must have been more, for they were wandering far from the mother when 

 seized. 



Once I saw an enormous frog swallow the head of a snake about two 

 feet long, and it was gulping down the body as you wind up a measuring 

 tape, when the struggles of the snake became so violent that the frog tumbled 

 with it into a tank, so the result of that experiment must also remain 

 unknown. 



Some months ago I caught a mouse in a trap and dropped it alive into 

 a duck pond in the garden, in which there were several frogs. It had 

 scarcely touched the surface of the water when a frog darted forward 

 and the mouse disappeared. The thing was so quickly and neatly done 

 that I am unable to assert that I saw the frog swallow the mouse, but 

 there was no mouse thereafter for ever. 



Finally, a friend of mine and a vice-president of B. N. H. Society once 

 commissioned somebody to get him a frog for dissection, and a large bull- 

 frog was brought to him in a very remarkable condition. It was globular 

 and so hard that it would have made a good cricket ball. He proceeded 

 to dissect it and took out a full-grown sparrow. If he is in the chair 

 when this note is read, he will confirm my story. 



A poisonous humour is secreted by the skin of the toad which makes 

 most animals refuse it, but the frog mentioned by J. Dundas Whiffin acted 

 quite in accordance with its nature in swallowing the toad first and 

 thinking about that afterwards. 



E. H. AITKEN. 



Batnagiei District,. 

 1th May, 1895. 



