292 [Proc. B.N.F.C,, 



renders a great service by the steady and thorough-going 

 manner in which it clears the plants of every creature that 

 moves. Toads and frogs are very prolific, laying as many as 

 9,000 eggs each, but in every stage they form the food of 

 numerous enemies, and when eventually they leave the water 

 and take to the land, they become the food of almost every 

 species of wild-fowl. It is estimated that not one in one 

 thousand of the young frogs ever reach their winter quarters — 

 like too many of ourselves, they have bills to meet for which 

 they are quite unprepared ; these are always drawn at sight, and 

 have to be accepted and paid without any days of grace. Frogs, 

 in the course of their career, have a dual existence. In the tad- 

 pole state they belong entirely to the water ; advanced to the 

 position of froghood, they are equally at home in the pond or 

 the meadow. There is much about the tadpole that is interes- 

 ting. Look at his figure. How round ; what an image of easy- 

 going softness ! Which is his head ? Which is his capacious 

 stomach ? The little being which issues from the frog's egg is 

 provided in the first instance with a long, fleshy tail, which he 

 repudiates in after life (which Lord Montboddo held that we 

 ourselves have done), and a small horny beak. Beyond the 

 operation of eating, he does not lead a life of great activity. 

 He, however, makes up for this quiesence when his metamor- 

 phosis is accomplished. There never was change more complete. 

 Even the magic of the Treasury Bench does not effect a greater, 

 for the tadpoles which swarm towards that haven of bliss 

 generally remain tadpoles till the end of the chapter. As a 

 tadpole he was a vegetarian, but now, being a frog, he knows 

 better. Animal food is what he goes in for now, and, that there 

 may be no mistake about it, he swallows everything whole — not, 

 as some suppose, from sheer voracity, but on account of the 

 quickness and impatience of his nature, which cannot afford to 

 wait. He has no time to be fastidious about cookery, but 

 makes the most of his opportunity ; an example which, if 

 always followed by mankind, might not be altogether amiss. 

 Frogs and toads have wonderful voices. The Hyla, for 



