:::;::::Hiv THE MAGIC POOLS B:""-:^ 



In one of the lower pools was a string of frogs' eggs 

 — a black-beaded cord of gelatine, five or six feet in 

 length. One day a large tadpole swam lazily along near 

 the shallow edge, nibbling at the green scum. A lizard 

 jumped at him, bit oft' a good section of tail, and 

 disappeared among the rocks. The shock seemed to 

 paralyze or kill the tadpole at once, and, wrong side up, 

 it floated along with the current. Tiny fish snatched 

 at it, white-spotted water-beetles danced around and 

 around it, green water-boatmen glided to it, but on 

 went the unfortunate tadpole. Caught in an eddy for 

 an instant, a giant claret-coloured mud wasp tried to 

 clutch it, but failed. Onward a few feet it rushed and 

 came to rest in a second pool, where it whirled about 

 for the last time, for a Black Phoebe darted like light- 

 ning upon it, snatched it from the water without Avet- 

 ting a feather, and went back to his rocky perch, flirt- 

 ing his tail with satisfaction. 



A Mexican tadpole must needs indeed be wary if he 

 wishes to live and grow up, like his parents, to sit upon 

 the brook's edge in the pale moonlight and thrum the 

 great bleating roars, which resound with a heavy re- 

 verberating rhythm from wall to wall of the barranca. 



THE THIRSTY ONES 



This is a thirsty land and the pools of sweet water 

 are the drinking-places, not only of deer, raccoons, 

 birds, and other creatures of fur and feathers, but in- 

 ^ 207 >» 



