OF SELBORNE. 



85 



those fall. Frogs are as yet in their tadpole 

 state; but, in a few weeks, our lanes, paths, 

 fields, will swarm for a few days with my- 

 riads of those emigrants, no larger than 

 my little finger nail. Swammerdam gives a 

 most accurate account of the method and 

 situation in which the male impregnates 

 the spawn of the female. How wonderful 

 is the economy of Providence with regard 

 to the limbs of so vile a reptile ! While it 

 is an aquatic it has a fish-like tail, and no 

 legs : as soon as the legs sprout, the tail 

 drops off as useless, and the animal betakes 

 itself to the land ! 



Merret, I trust, is widely mistaken when 

 he advances that the rana arborea is an 

 English reptile; it abounds in Germany 

 and Switzerland, 



It is to be remembered that the salaman- 

 dra aquatica of Ray (the water-newt or 

 eft) will frequently bite at the angler's bait, 

 and is often caught on his hook. I used 

 to take it for granted that the salamandra 

 aquatica was hatched, lived, and died, in 

 the water. But /o Aw Ellis, Esq. F.R.S. (the 



