438 CLASS REPTILIA, 



fecundating fluid proceeds from the caruncles on the feet of 

 the male, a notion of the most absurd kind. Intromission of 

 any kind is impossible, as the male is provided with no organ 

 for the purpose. 



But even these mistakes are pardonable compared with the 

 ridiculous fables repeated by Pliny and Cardan on the repro- 

 duction of frogs. Those authors pretend that every six 

 months these animals melt into a sort of slime, and that in 

 spring they regenerate of themselves in the bosom of the 

 waters. 



The frogs are extremely multiplied. Their intercoure is 

 very rarely indeed unproductive of a fruitful result. Daudin 

 observed this failure but once in eleven times. 



Each female lays annually from six to twelve hundred 

 eggs. Swammerdam once reckoned eleven hundred, the pro- 

 duction of a single female, and Montbeillard thirteen hun- 

 dred. Be it also remarked, that the frogs can live a great 

 number of years, if fortunate enough to escape the tooth or 

 beak of their enemies. 



These enemies are very numerous. A number of quadru- 

 peds, birds, reptiles, and fishes, live habitually at the ex- 

 pence of the frogs. Serpents, pikes, vultures, and storks, 

 destroy an immensity of them. Without the intervention of 

 the last-mentioned birds, Egypt in particular would be 

 covered with frogs. In some countries they are even sought 

 after by man as a wholesome and agreeable aliment. Their 

 only means of defence is the fluid which they eject from the 

 anus, and which has but small efi'ect in deterring those ani- 

 mals which approach them with hostile intentions. 



According to some writers, Roesel in particular, the frogs 

 in summer moult every eight days ; but at each moulting 

 they only lose their epidermis. Daudin has frequently ob- 

 served that they change colour, and grow brown, from terror. 



