202 THE LIVING ANIMALS OL THE WORLD 
tadpole phase. While in the adult state they are strictly carnivorous, the tadpoles are 
vegetarian feeders. 
The section to which the COMMON British Frog belongs includes nearly 150 species, 
collectively known as Water-frogs, which present considerable differences in both their aspect 
and habits. While some are perennially aquatic, others only resort to the water during the 
breeding-season ; some are terrestrial and occasionally earth-burrowers, while yet another series 
is essentially arboreal. 
In addition to the familiar British species the much-esteemed Edible Frog of the 
Continent has become acclimatised in England. A dark-coloured race of this frog, supposed 
to have been introduced by the monks centuries since on account of its esculent properties, is 
plentiful in the fens of Cambridgeshire, while a 
greener race of the same species was imported 
to and established in Norfolk somewhere about 
the year 1840. The edible frog may be 
distinguished from the common species by 
the more complete webbing of its hind feet, 
the absence of the dark so-called temporal 
spot that extends from the eye to the shoulder, 
and the presence in the males of a globular 
sac on each side of the head, which confers 
upon them louder croaking powers than are 
possessed by the common species. 
The loudest-voiced as well as almost the 
largest member of this group is the Bull- 
frog of Canada and the United States. The 
length of the body in this species may be 
as much as from 7 to 7^ inches, exclusive of 
the legs ; and its croakings, or more correctly 
bellowings, are so loud that it may be heard 
for a distance of several miles. These croakings 
are most pronounced during the early spring 
or breeding-season. In the Southern United 
States, however, they are maintained more or 
less persistently throughout the year. While 
the British frog contents itself with a diet of 
slugs, worms, beetles, and other insects, the 
bull-frog aspires to larger quarry, and has an 
especial penchant for young ducklings. As a 
compensation the flesh of the bull-frog is said 
to be very delicately flavoured, and the species 
is so much esteemed in some localities as to 
be kept in captivity and fattened for the 
table. It has been recorded that the bull-frog makes leaps of from 8 to 10 feet in length and 
5 feet in height. 
In point of size the bull-frog is somewhat eclipsed by a species discovered in the Solomon 
Islands, and known as GUPPV’S Frog. This huge frog has a body no less than 9 inches in 
length. It has not been recorded whether its vocal powers are proportionately loud. Another 
large species allied to the Bull-frogs is found in South and East Africa, whose flesh is attested 
to by Dr. Livingstone as being excellent eating and resembling chicken when cooked. This 
frog, known to the natives as the M.\tlamitlo, is supposed by them to fall from the clouds, 
on account of its sudden appearance in even the driest parts of the desert immediately after 
a thunder-storm. The species, however, is in the habit of making holes at the roots of bushes. 
by W. Saville^Kent^ ¥,Z S. ) \^Milford-on‘Sea 
RONTGEN RAY PHOTOGRAPH OF 
COMMON FROG 
The relati'vely small amount of bone ivhtch enters into the structure of 
the skull is 'well shown in this photograph 
