CHAPTER XI 



CONCERNING TADPOLES 



. . . The toad, ugly and venomous. 

 Wears yet a precious jewel in his head. 



Concentrated into these few words, Shakespeare has 

 expressed the indefinable and unreasonable dishke and 

 repugnance with which the human race, from earliest times 

 till now, has regarded both the frogs and toads and their 

 kin and their more advanced relatives the reptiles ; for even 

 now all these are, in common speech, described as " rep- 

 tiles." But they have been condemned without trial : a 

 few, like the poisonous snakes, are to be looked at askance, 

 but even these strike only in self-defence, or legitimately 

 to secure their daily bread. 



A very brief suspension of prejudice, a very little un- 

 biassed observation, would have shown that these despised 

 and rejected ones were among the most interesting and 

 fascinating of living creatures. And this is more especially 

 true of the frogs and toads and their kin, which collectively 

 form what are known as the " Amphibia." Psychologic- 

 ally, these creatures are most puzzling ; for many, to secure 

 the well-being of their offspring, seem to display both 

 intelligence and affection, attributes which nowadays we 

 accord only to the human race. But of this anon. 



The young of the frogs and toads and their kin differ 

 conspicuously from the young of reptiles, in that they do 

 not enter the world as miniatures of their parents, as do 

 young reptiles, but in a guise far otherwise. In the course 



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