2074 Reptiles — Fishes. 



neighbours were once said to delight, but out-of-door naturalists have found no proof 

 of the assertion ; in fact, on the contrary, the common frog (Rana temporaria) is that 

 which is served occasionally as a Parisian dish. It is doubtless a fact that some na- 

 turalist has seen the real esculenta caught for this purpose, and so has applied the 

 maxim ex uno disce omnes ; but the result of a good deal of enquiry on the subject, in 

 the markets and hotels of Paris, convinced me that there was no selection made of 

 either species, and that the captors did not even know the difference between them. — 

 E.N.-] 



Tameness and Voracity of a Toad. — Staying one summer, when a boy, not far 

 from the town of Dorking, in Surrey, I observed that three or four currant-bushes, 

 trained against a wall at the end of the garden, were almost entirely stripped of their 

 leaves by the ravages of a small green caterpillar, which swarmed all over the branches. 

 Perceiving, at the same time, a toad, sitting very quietly in a corner, at no great dis- 

 tance, it occurred to me to try if he would eat them. Accordingly, having collected 

 a large quantity, I presented him one on the end of a short stick, and was much 

 pleased to see him put out his long tongue, draw the caterpillar in, and swallow it 

 greedily. I continued to feed him for about a quarter of an hour. Taking a turn in 

 the garden the following day, about the same hour, I perceived the old fellow in the 

 corner again, and presented him with a number of caterpillars as before. The two 

 next days he returned to the same place, and I fed him again ; but the next, in con- 

 sequence of the stock of caterpillars being exhausted, I was unable to give him his 

 usual repast. The following day also he was there again, but receiving nothing he 

 came no more. It was always about the same hour in the afternoon that he was at 

 his post, as if he had some idea of the time of day when I should come to feed him. 

 — J. G. Leadbitter ; 6, Frederick's Place, Grays Inn Road, March, 1848. 



Snakes destructive to Mice. — When grouse shooting with my brother, upon the 

 Durham Moors, he shot a snake which was basking in the sun, and which, from its 

 apparent fulness, I was induced to have opened by my gamekeeper, who found within 

 it three mice lying head to tail, the head having in every instance been swallowed first. 

 We particularly noticed the state of decomposition in which the mice were, and con- 

 cluded that they had been swallowed on three successive days, and that a mouse per 

 day might be the usual portion of food : this, however, is mere conjecture. Mice upon 

 dry moors are sometimes numerous, but I suppose that snakes also feed upon young 

 birds. — Isaac Cookson ; Meldon Park, near Morpeth, Northumberland, February 22, 

 1848. 



Voracity of Fishes. — " This preparation will serve as an illustration of the vora- 

 ciousness of their habits. Here is the skeleton of a frog-fish, two and a half feet in 

 length, in the stomach of which is the skeleton of a cod-fish, two feet long ; in whose 

 stomach again arc contained the skeletons of two whitings of the ordinary size ; in the 

 stomach of each whiting there lay numerous half-digested little fishes, which were too 

 small and broken down to admit of preservation. The frog-fish, with all these con- 

 tents, was taken last summer by the fishermen, and offered for sale in the" market as 

 an article of food, without any reference at all to the size of its stomach, which to them 

 is an every day appearance."— Dr. Houston's Lecture before the Zoological Society of 

 Dublin. 



