22 LECTURE VIL 
light. The character of the genus is, that the 
body is destitute of any particular covering ex- 
cept the mere skin ; furiiislied with four feet, and 
without any tail. The most familiar example 
that can be given is the Common Frog, which is 
the Rana temporaria of Linnasus, which is almost 
every where seen in moist situations, where it 
can command a sufficient quantity of insects and 
small worms, which are its favourite food. As 
a species the Common Frog is distinguished by 
its yellowish-brown colour, spotted with black, 
and by a lengthened brown patch or streak be- 
neath each eye. It often however varies in co- 
lour, running through all the shades of olive, and 
sometimes even of reddish brown. The form of 
the common Frog is light and elegant j the limbs 
finely calculated for the peculiar motions of the 
animal, and the hind feet strongly webbed, ta 
assist its progress in the water, to which it oc- 
casionally retires during the heats of summer, and 
again during the frosts of winter, when it lies in a 
state of torpidity either plunged in the soft mud 
at the bottom of stagnant waters, or in the hol- 
lows beneath their banks, till it is awakened from 
its slumbers by the return of Spring. In the 
month of March it deposits its eggs, in large 
