1704 Reptiles. 



find we do not know enough, we must wait for further facts to be ascertained, either 

 by accidental or experimental observatiou. 



First, then, we know that frogs make at least two or three different kinds of noise, 

 which, reasoning from universal analogy, we suppose other frogs to be able to dis- 

 tinguish and understand. They have their breeding croak ; their cries of despair, 

 when pursued by a bird of prey ; and, I think, other sounds expressive of bodily pain. 

 Secondly, we know that some of their notes have the effect of collecting other frogs. 

 Thus, in the spring, the croak proclaims the rendezvous for spawning, and in the au- 

 tumn something of the kind may be used to assemble those clusters of frogs which are 

 found hybernating together ; as we are told that rattlesnakes, on a similar occasion, 

 collect themselves together by means of hissing. We only want then to know for cer- 

 tain, whether a frog, trapped by the leg, would sooner or later cry out ; and then 

 whether this would have the effect of collecting others ? We have seen, from what we 

 know of the frog, that both these are likely, and it is a likelihood much strengthened 

 by what we know of the habits of various other animals, a consideration indeed to 

 which we are apt to give too much weight. But still there is the climbing and jump- 

 ing down to be accounted for. We reject, for the reasons given before, Mr. Davis's 

 explanation of these actions. We find a difficulty in connecting them with the pri- 

 soner at all, unless we may consider them the result of infatuated excitement about 

 him in the other frogs. This leads us to conjecture whether, after all, he may not 

 himself have been playing the same tricks when he was trapped in the blind. But, 

 whether it was so, or whether his noise, being merely an ordinary croak, deluded the 

 other eager frogs into false hopes of there being something worth going for, we may 

 in either case venture the following suggestions. 



It is a rainy evening in October, the time of day and the sort of weather when 

 frogs are sure to be on the move, and the time of year when we may suppose them to 

 be looking out for lodgings for the winter. The rain comes streaming from the roof, 

 or is heard running down spouts : the frogs suppose, instinctively, that where water 

 runs down there must be more above, and they try to climb up, hoping to find a pond 

 where they may lie in the mud till spring. By instinct, fishes in a pump-trough, try 

 to swim up any little jet by which fresh water is supplied to them. Perhaps our frogs, 

 having got some little height, mistake the glass for water, and try to jump down into 

 it ; or the glass looking so like water, may have been what originally attracted them, 

 especially if there is any rising ground before the window. The probability of these 

 suggestions will of course much depend upon local circumstances, as whether they 

 could have had access to a pond without any trouble. 



Another explanation that might perhaps suggest itself, is, that if they were in a 

 walled garden they were trying to climb out, as every one has seen frogs sticking their 

 toes into the sides of wells in the most uncomfortable efforts to escape, and as we know 

 snakes and lizards will make great exertions for the same purpose; I have even seen 

 vipers in the ivy, nearly at the top of a ten-foot wall. But we must not forget Mr. 

 Davis's first idea,' that the light may have attracted them, for it is curious how many 

 animals are attracted by light ; some insects, perhaps more than we are apt to suppose, 

 mistaking it for the signal of their mates ; some birds perhaps guiding their nocturnal 

 flight by it, instead of by a star ; other birds, thinking themselves in a confined space, 

 flying to the light as to a hole for escape ; some fishes, possibly seeking phosphores- 

 cent food, come to the light by mistake ; other animals being excited by curiosity ; 

 whilst in many cases, we cannot even venture a guess as to the reason of a light 



