ae COMMON FROG. Clafs TIT. 
animals; for it is well known, that when the female 
frog depofits its fpawn, the male inftantaneoufly im- 
pregnates it with what we may call a farina fecundans, 
in the fame manner as the male Palm tree conveys 
fructification to the flowers of the female, which 
would otherwife be barren *. 
As foon as the frogs are releafed from their tad- 
pole ftate they immediately take to land; and if the 
weather has been hot, and there fall any refrefhing 
fhowers, you may fee the ground for a confiderable 
fpace perfectly blackened by Myriads of thefe ani- 
malcules, feeking for fome fecure lurking places. 
Some philofophers** not giving themfelves time to 
examine into this phanomenon, imagined them to 
have been generated in the clouds, and fhowered on 
the earth; but had they, like our Derham+, but 
traced them to the next pool, they would haye 
found a better folution of the difficulty. 
As frogs adhere clofely to the backs of their own 
fpecies, fo we know they will do the fame by fifh: 
Walton} mentions a ftrange ftory of their deftroying 
pike; but that they will injure, if not entirely kill 
carp, is a faét indifputable, from the following rela- 
tion: avery few years ago on fifhing a pond belong- 
ing to Mr. Pit, of Encomb, Dorfet/bire, great num- 
bers of the carp were found each with a frog mount- 
ed on it, the hind legs clinging to the back, the 
fore legs fixed in the corner of each eye of the fifh, 
which were thin and greatly wafted, teized by car- 
® Shaw's Travels, 224. Haffelquift Trav. Engl. Ed. 416, 
** Rondeletius, 216. Wormii Mu/. 327. 
+ Ray’s Vifdom Creat. 316. t Complete Angler, 161, 
rying 
