APPENDIX. 127 
Music 1n Nature. — Contin. : 
A record of “ musical sounds like the prolonged notes on the harp,” 
proceeding from under water, is to be found in “Bombay Times,” 
Feb. 13, 1849. 
Froa. 
Wheelwright, H. W. (Ten Years in Sweden, London, 1865), men- 
tions a little frog (Bombinator igneus) which has a love-tune like the 
ringing of bells. 
“New Views in Natural History, leading up to the Perfectly Authentic 
History of an Interesting but Unfortunate Frog,’ is the queer title of a 
pamphlet recently published in a French country town by a good abbé. 
It tells a simple and touching story of a melodious frog. The abbé 
relates how he called one day upon a sick man, one of the poorest of 
his parishioners, who, in honor of the priest’s visit, threw into the fire- 
place a few branches, which blazed up into a bright flame. 
“Presently there appeared, from under an old worm-eaten chest, which 
was the sole article of furniture in the room, an enormous frog, which 
hopped along toward the blaze. The frog seemed to be at home, and 
so he was. He was the sick man’s only friend. 
“The abbé regarded the animal with interest. Thereupon the peasant, 
in order to repay the priest for his attention to his pet, gave an exhibition 
of the frog’s accomplishments. In a nasal voice, the peasant began sing- 
ing one of the old French ballads that have come down from the time 
of King Dagobert —one of the simplest of songs, both in words and 
music. ‘What was my astonishment,’ writes the abbé, ‘to hear the frog, 
after the man had sung one couplet of his song, take up the note upon 
which the man had ended, and to utter his /a, drop to fa, go up to la 
again, and then down to mi, with a precision worthy of a choir-master. 
And these notes, /a, fa, la, mi, the frog repeated regularly and correctly, 
in a tone guttural and sweet, after every couplet that the man sang, like 
a sort of chorus. The notes were plaintive and a little veiled, with a 
touch of melancholy and regret, and sounded much like an old-fashioned 
harmonica.’ 
“The abbé describes also the expressive pantomime that the frog went 
through as he sang his notes. He looked tenderly toward his master, 
with an expression as if he really desired to please, and felt also a wish 
to have his performance appreciated. 
“This was, unfortunately, the only performance by the frog that the 
abbé witnessed. The poor man died a few days afterward, and the 
singing frog disappeared. No one knows what became of him.” — News- 
paper clipping. 
