THE HABITS OF FROGS 145 



It must not only be alive, it must be stirring, other- 

 wise he will not touch it. The tongue is shot out 

 at a lightning pace, and retracted with equal speed, 

 taking the prey with it. The frog will get to know 

 persons, and there have been instances recorded in 

 which they have answered to their names and would 

 come to be fed when called. Frogs certainly have 

 very highly developed gifts of instinct or intelligence 

 of their own kind. When necessary they are, 

 for instance, able to make straight for water even 

 from a very long distance. The large bull-frogs of 

 America are almost as intelligent as rabbits. The 

 little French climbing tree-frogs have also a very 

 keen sense of locality. The writer once, after much 

 effort, captured one of these, and, taking it home, 

 placed it, apparently securely fastened up, in a large 

 room. During the night it got loose, climbed the 

 wall, and finding the only opening in the room, 

 escaped through an inch of space which had been 

 left over the top of a window-sash. Frogs wiU show 

 no mark of satisfaction when pleased, but our 

 common frog can express feehngs of fear or terror in 

 a most striking manner. If chased, especially by 

 an animal which it fears, it will sometimes, if it 

 thinks escape to be impossible, give utterance to a 

 squeal which is almost human in its pitch and 

 intensity. AU frogs have a keen appreciation of 

 coming changes of weather, and they will adjust 

 their habits accordingly. 



It is not easy to say, in the case of the frog, how 

 much is due to intelligence and how much to instinct 

 or even to reflex action. It is one of the common- 

 places of science what a frog will do even after his 

 brain is removed. If care is taken to keep them 



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