THE YOUNG NATURALIST. 



35 



at the bottom, and a few waterweeds planted in. A few insects, or bits of 

 raw meat, should be given them when they are a respectable size. A shelving 

 bank of gravel should be contrived, in order that the little frogs may leave 

 the water. Our little frog, being now provided with legs and dismembered 

 of its tail, comes forth from the water in June, and hides in company with 

 dozens of its fellows under stones and in crevices. A sudden shower will 

 bring these little creatures forth from their hiding-places in great numbers, 

 and the passing pedestrian, if he happens to be of a credulous turn of mind, 

 at once concludes that a shower of frogs has fallen. Now I do not mean to 

 affirm that there has not been such a thing as a shower of frogs ; on the con- 

 trary, I believe it to be possible for the water in ponds and pools to be 

 drawn up in a sort of whirl, and again descend, and with it the fish, reptiles, 

 insects, and what not. Tiny frogs have, undoubtedly, been found on the 

 roofs of houses ; and I once found a tiny specimen of the smooth newt (L. 

 punctatus) floating on the top of a pan of fresh-fallen rain-water, but how it 

 came there I could never understand, as the pan was more than a foot in 

 height, and newts, so far as I know, cannot climb perpendicularly. Such 

 instances, however, are of rare occurrence. 



What owner of a garden is not familiar with the personal appearance of 

 poor froggy, but at the same time how few there are who are conversant with 

 its habits. In our garden rambles we generally find froggy in some damp 

 corner, or under a spreading rhubarb or cabbage leaf, sitting half erect and 

 staring most earnestly at nothing in particular. Give him a slight push, and 

 straightway he springs off a couple of feet. The agility of the frog is indeed 

 remarkable, and it is equally at home in the water, swimming and diving 

 with great address. Being a great lover of moisture, the poor frog in 

 droughty weather is in great distress, its porous skin becoming hard and 

 horny. But when the genial rain descends, froggy's skin imbibes the mois- 

 ture freely, and froggy is himself again, changing iu a very short time from a 

 meagre, skeleton-like creature, to a wonderfully plump active fellow. So 

 rapid is the frog's power of taking in moisture through the pores of the skin 

 that it has been known to absorb water, equal to itself in bulk, in about an 

 hour and a half. 



And what does froggy eat ? Why, kind reader, if you happen to be a 

 gardener, you have in poor froggy one of your firmest friends, for he will 

 clear the aphides from your pet plants, and the slugs from your cabbages at a 

 fine rate. He is particularly useful among ferns and greenhouse plants. And 

 with what expertness, too, does froggy seize his prey ! Probably but few of 

 my readers have seen the tongue of the frog. It is a most singular and 

 effective piece of mechanism I can assure them. The base of the tongue 



