136 EDGE OF THE JUNGLE 
flagellating tail, connected by a pinwheel of in- 
testine, are scant material wherewith to attempt 
new experiments, whereon to nourish aspirations. 
Yet the Redfins, as typified by Guinevere, have 
done both, and given time enough, they may emu- 
late or surpass the achievements of larval axo- 
lotls, or the astounding egg-producing maggots 
of certain gnats, thus realizing all the possibil- 
ities of froghood while yet cribbed within the 
lowly casing of a pollywog. 
In the first place Guinevere had ceased being 
positively thigmotactic, and, writing as a tech- 
nical herpetologist, I need add no more. In 
fact, all my readers, whether Batrachologists or 
Casuals, will agree that this is an unheard-of 
achievement. But before I loosen the technical 
etymology and become casually more explicit, let 
me hold this term in suspense a moment, as I 
once did, fascinated by the sheer sound of the syl- 
lables, as they first came to my ears years ago in 
a university lecture. There is that of possibility 
in being positively thigmotactic which makes one 
dread the necessity of exposing and limiting its 
meaning, of digging down to its mathematically 
accurate roots. It could never be called a flower 
of speech: it is an over-ripe fruit rather: heavy- 
