ORDER BATRACHIA. 439 



when they are in the presence of a snake. The frogs do not 

 reproduce beyond the third or fourth year of their existence. 

 It seems probable that they live a long time ; but we have 

 no positive data on this subject. 



Living frogs have been found in thermal waters beyond the 

 thirty-fifth degree of the thermometer of Reaumur, Spallan- 

 zani mentions an example of this kind on the authority of one 

 of his friends, who has seen them alive in the baths of Pisa, 

 though exposed to a temperature of 37° ^ 0. R. 



We have already mentioned man among the enemies of 

 the frogs, which in certain countries furnish food for his 

 table. In England we hold this kind of aliment in detesta- 

 tion, which appears to be the result of nothing but a most 

 unfounded prejudice. In France a very great consumption 

 of frogs takes place ; and they are caught in various ways, 

 either with lines, or little nets, or by means of a rake, which 

 brings them to the shore along with the mud. Sometimes 

 they are pursued by night, and with torches, the light of 

 which attracts them. 



It is in autumn, at the moment in which they plunge into 

 the water, where they are about to pass the winter, that their 

 flesh is most in estimation, for at this time it is fatter, and of 

 a more delicate flavour. Nevertheless, a greater quantity of 

 it is eaten in spring than in any other season, for the frogs are 

 then more easily caught. 



There are places in which depots of frogs are kept in re- 

 serve in gardens furnished with pieces of water, and closed 

 round by walls, to be sold at all times to amateurs. About a 

 century ago or more, they were in great request in Paris. A 

 native of Auvergne, named Simon, made a considerable for- 

 tune by fattening up, in a suburb of that city, the frogs 

 which he had collected in his own country. At present they 

 are much less generally eaten in France ; but they are con- 



