^134 CLASS REPTILIA. 



of explaining the cause. Cardan, in his book de Subtilitafe, 

 asserted that it was the violence of the winds which carried 

 the frogs from the tops of the mountains, and caused them 

 to fall in the plains, or " stoop to th' vale."" The wind also, 

 according to the same author, could carry off the eggs of 

 frogs, which opened in the air. But Scaliger demonstrated 

 the utter impossibility of this, by shewing that the first pro- 

 duction of the egg is a tadpole, and not a perfect frog. 

 Besides, had these frogs been engendered in the clouds with 

 the rain which brings them, if even, by virtue of this rain, 

 they had been instantaneously evolved from the dust which 

 it moistened, how shall we account for the aliment found in 

 their stomachs, and the excrements which fill their intestines ? 

 We must believe then, Avith Redi, that their birth was 

 anterior to their appearance, an observation developed with 

 much talent by that learned Italian, but the honour of which 

 is originally due to Theophrastus, the disciple of Aristotle, 

 who lived under the reign of the first Ptolemy, King of 

 Egypt, and who has written a treatise on animals which 

 suddenly appear, entitled ffE^' rdv aGpoov (pxivoi^-svuiv ^um. It is 

 therefore clearly proved, that the rain only draws them from 

 the retreats in which they had lain concealed. 



The frogs are distinguished by a very peculiar and sono- 

 rous cry, which we term croaking, and the French cro- 

 asseme7it or co-assement. Aristophanes has tried to imitate 

 it by the barbarous and discordant combinations, Brekekekeoo, 

 coax, coax. It is particularly during the time of rain, and 

 in hot days, in the evening and morning, that the frogs in- 

 dulge in this harmonious concert. The noise which they 

 then make becomes sometimes insupportable. During the 

 feudal regime, in France, when all the castles were sur- 

 rounded with water, it was the occupation of the slaves or 

 villains, to strike the water of those dykes, morning and 



