FROGS AND TOADS 



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ORDER I. : FROGS AND TOADS (ANURA). 



Body broad, the adult animal always tailless and provided with two 

 pairs of well-developed limbs. 



The Edible Frog (Rana esculenta). 

 (Length from 2J to 3 inches.) 



A. Distribution and Habitat. 



This species is met with over the whole of Europe, North Africa, and 

 Western Asia. It occurs in England only in Cambridgeshire and Norfolk, 

 having been imported at some time or other from the Continent. It 



Soh., Scapula. 



0., humerus. 



U., conjoined radius and ulna. 



Hw., carpal bones. 



M., metacarpal bones! 



II. -V., digits of manus. 



W., vertebrae. 



St., urostyle. 



D., ilium. 



Osch., femur. 



Usch., conjoined tibia and fibula. 



Fw., calcaneo-astragalus portion of tarsus. 



Mf., metatarsal boDes. 



I.-V.j digits of the pes. 



Skeleton of the Edible Fkog (shown within the Outline op the Body). 

 (About throe-quarters natural size.) 



frequents principally pieces of water richly overgrown with plants, and 

 the banks of which are abundantly covered with grass, rushes, and 

 bushes. 



B. Colour. 



Amid such surroundings the animal's colour is its chief protection 

 against its enemies, the stork, heron, pike, etc. The skin of its upper 

 surface is grass green, variegated with dark spots and three yellow 

 longitudinal stripes, an arrangement of colours which renders the 

 animal quite invisible amid the dense growth of water-plants and the 

 high grass of the banks, nor does its yellow or white under side render 

 it conspicuous amid such surroundings (why not?). 



