1£2 



PARADOXICAL FROG. 



largest sized of these tadpoles, exceeding perhaps 

 the length of six or eight inches, the hind legs 

 alone appear ; while in those of far smaller size 

 both the fore and hind legs are equally conspicuous. 

 Specimens of these curious animals occur both in 

 the British and Levcrian Museums. 



It will readily appear that the larva of this frog 

 is larger in proportion to the complete animal 

 than in any other species hitherto discovered. It 

 may also be not improper to observe, that perhaps 

 all the specimens of these very large tadpoles oc- 

 curing in Museums, may not be those of the Rana 

 Paradoxa in particular, but of some other Ameri- 

 can, African, or Asiatic Frogs, as the R. ocellata, 

 marina, &c. &c. 



Dr. Gmelin, in his edition of the Systema Na- 

 turae, seems to suppose that the fleshy part of the 

 tail ixi this larva still remains after the animal has 

 acquired its complete form ; but this is by no 

 means the case ; no vestige of that part being vi- 

 sible in the perfect Frog. 



