194 Toads and Frogs of the Laggan District. [Sess. 



the middle of his tin, and almost at once he began his 

 wild call. He continued calling all night, which consider- 

 ably disturbed the slumbers of some of my household. He 

 even continued his cry from his darkened house until late 

 in the morning, when he got his morning meal. He did 

 not make his cry every night, but when the weather was 

 warm he would continue it for several nights together. 

 He was wonderfully tame, and took a live worm out of 

 my hand the first day. Day by day he got tamer, and 

 knew those who fed him quite well, coming at once out 

 of his hole among the sphagnum whenever the lid of his 

 house was raised. We always put a few live worms into 

 his tin, and these quickly disappeared down into the moss. 

 As we invariably found all, or nearly all, of these on the 

 bottom of the tin when we cleaned it out, we came to the 

 conclusion that he did not avail himself much of that 

 source of supply, and preferred to be fed from our hands. 

 It was very amusing to see him take food. He made a 

 dart at the worm, and generally managed to get it into 

 his mouth. A moment later one end would begin to crawl 

 out of the side of his jaws. Then there was an energetic 

 use of his forefeet to assist in keeping the worm in. Fre- 

 quently, as one end of the worm was got into his mouth, the 

 other end appeared struggling to escape, and so the fight 

 went on, but always ended in the frog swallowing his prey. 

 In time we managed to get a few more frogs, but they 

 were neither so large nor so beautifully marked as our 

 pet " Tu-wheet." He was of a bright yellow colour, with 

 light-brown spots and markings. When he arrived in the 

 Museum he was put into the Aquarium, where, a few weeks 

 later, along with some of my family, I went to see him. He 

 looked thinner and not quite so jocose or so much at home 

 as in his tin box. He showed no sign of recognition, and 

 evidently had forgotten us as friends, and I confess we left 

 his presence with a distinct feeling of disappointment. 



Frogs have some power of adapting themselves in colour to 

 their surroundings, and, within a short time of being changed 

 from one place to another, become darker or lighter in shade 

 of skin, so as to assimilate in appearance with the ground on 

 which they are living. At least, that is the conclusion I 



