CHAPTER XLV 

 ORDER OE FROGS AND TOADS 



EC AU DAT A 



^ I "^HE members of this Order are the most numerous, most 



A widely dispersed and the best known of the amphibians. 



In all there are about 900 species; and it may be added that 



the habits of some of them are very strange and interesting. 



In their modes of life the frogs and toads exhibit great 

 diversity of inclination. The tree frogs live in trees, the toads 

 seldom leave dry land, the burrowing toads burrow in the 

 earth, and the water frogs live in water at least half the time. 



Some of these creatures begin active life in water, as ugly, 

 little fish-like tadpoles, and their transformation into the per- 

 fect frogs may easilj' be watched from beginning to end. In 

 some of the toads, however, the tadpole stage is passed in 

 the egg, and at hatching-time a fully developed but very 

 minute toad emerges, and begins to hop about. Others again 

 develop from the tadpole stage, much the same as frogs. 



The larva of a species fairly typical of this Order as a 

 whole may be found in the tadpole of any aquatic frog. It 

 possesses a big, purse-like head — like that of a goose-fish — 

 and a long eel-like tail, surrounded by a continuous fin. At 

 first there is no sign of legs. The intestinal canal is very long 

 and simjDle, as befits the vegetable diet of the creature. In 

 the transformation process, the tail is absorbed into the body, 



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