THE YOUNG NATURALIST. 



37 



was partly digested. But its most terrible enemy in the water is the brown 

 rat, numbers of which creatures leave our ricks and barns in spring, and take 

 up their residence on the banks of ponds of streams, migrating back again 

 when the crops are housed and winter approaches. Even on land the rat 

 will attack the frog. I have a note in my diary of a rat having been seen 

 crossing a road with a frog in its mouth. There was no mistake about it, 

 as Master Eat was stopped and killed. 



The means by which froggy expresses his joys and fears is through the 

 medium of croaking and squeaking. The former is principally heard in the 

 spring of the year about damp meadows, ditches, and ponds. Froggy is now 

 engaged in courting, and in the joy of his heart lays his lower jaw on the 

 water, puffs out his cheeks, and produces that delightful sound known as 

 croaking. In some marshy districts, especially in continental countries, the 

 croaking of frogs at night is almost unbearable. But when froggy' s fears 

 are exited, he utters a very different sound. This is a thin, shrill squeak, 

 long or short according as to whether his alarm is great or small. 



The frog possesses great tenacity of life. Divested of its skin, and even of 

 its head, it still exhibits great muscular activity, and there is a well-accredited 

 story of a frog, which had been frozen in a cistern, at Clifton, near Bristol, in 

 1845, which though frozen to such an extent that one of its legs was broken 

 off, yet on the thaw occuring, revived and swam about as actively as a frog 

 with three legs could be expected to do. 



Towards the end of October or the beginning of November froggy dis- 

 appears from public view, and is seen no more till the early spring months of 

 the following year. What does he do with himself? Why, dear reader, he 

 simply buries himself. You may find him at these times, in company with 

 multitudes of his fellows in the mud at the bottom of ponds and pools. This 

 is froggy' s usual mode of hybernating. In one of his interesting works, how- 

 ever, the Eev. J. Wood mentions another way. He says, " In February, 

 1852, two frogs were dug out of the gravelled play -ground of Magdalen 

 School, Oxford. They were about a foot from the surface of the ground, and 

 their habitation was quite smooth. Both were sitting with their mouths 

 pointed upward, but I could not ascertain if there had been any communi- 

 cation with the open air/ ; In warm places, such as cellars, the frog does 

 not seem to hybernate; I have found it in company with newts in such 

 places as late as the end of December. I have also seen the frog in the open 

 air so late as November 22nd, and on one occasion as early as the 26th of 

 January. In the latter case, froggy was stretched stiff and frozen on the 

 grass of an orchard, having evidently been tempted forth by a few genial 

 days which had occurred beforehand. 



