251 
I. 
OX THE NATURALIZATION OF THE EDIBLE FROG 
( liana esculenta) IN NORFOLK. 
By Alfred Newton, M.A., F.R.S., &c. 
Read July 25th, 1876 . 
Having lately had the good luck to find that the Edible Frog was 
still an inhabitant of Norfolk instead of having become extinct 
there, as others besides myself had feared, it may be agreeable to 
the members of the Society to be placed in possession of such facts 
as I can supply with regard to the introduction of this animal into 
the county, and its subsequent shiftings of station therein. 
To begin at the beginning, I will quote the following extracts 
from a paper communicated by me in 1859 to ‘The Zoologist’ 
(pp. 6538—6540) 
“On the 8 th of June, 1853, as my brother Edward and myself 
were driving along the road between Thetford and Scoulton, in the 
county of Norfolk, we heard a most singular noise, and one we 
were unable to attribute to any cause known to us, proceeding from 
an adjacent field. We stopped, and he, getting out, entered the 
field, — a small meadow, — presently returning to me with the infor- 
mation that the extraordinary sounds came from a pond, hitherto 
hidden by the hedge, and that the utterers of them were no other 
than* edible frogs. Of course I went immediately to satisfy myself, 
and there, sure enough, were the frogs — some swimming to-and-fro 
in the water, some sitting on the aquatic plants, with which the pond 
was choked, and these last were exceedingly noisy, puffing out their 
faucial sacs, like so many dwellers in the cave of iEolus. After 
observing them for a little while, we tried to obtain some specimens, 
but herein fortune favoured the frogs : we had no aggressive weapons 
beyond a Walking-stick and an umbrella, and they were wary to a 
degree and exceedingly active. However, by persevering we became 
possessed of four individuals, three, I regret to say, dead, and one, 
* The printer here introduced a superfluous “ the,” which I now omit. 
