ORDER BATRACHIA. 393 



This is the species so common in all stagnant 

 waters, and so troublesome in summer from the con- 

 tinuity of its nocturnal clamours. It furnishes a 

 wholesome and agreeable aliment. It spreads its 

 eggs in packets in the marshes. 



The Common Frog, (Rana Temporaria, Lin. Roesel. 

 Ran. pi. i. ii. iii.) 



Reddish-brown, spotted with black, a black band 

 proceeding from the eye, and passing over the ear. 



This is the species which appears the earliest in 

 the spring. It keeps more on land than the pre- 

 ceding, and croaks much less. Its tadpole also 

 grows somewhat less before the metamorphosis. 



The South of France produces a frog, (i?. Cul- 

 tripes. Nob.) altogether sown with blackish spots, the 

 feet amply palmated, and especially remarkable for 

 having the vestige of the sixth toe covered with a 

 corneous and trenchant lamina. 



Among foreign frogs we may distinguish, 



Tke Paradoxical Frog i (^Rana Paradoxa, L. Seb. I., 

 Ixxviii. Merian. Surin., Ixxi. Daud. Gren. xxii. 

 xxiii.) 



Of all the species of this genus is that whose 

 tadpole grows the most. The loss of an enormous 

 tail, and of the envelopes of the body even makes 

 the adult animal have less volume than the tadpole, 

 which made the earliest observers believe that it was 

 the frog which was metamorphosed into a tadpole. 



