FROG. 
27 
man made on the tree frogs, he noticed their cau- 
tious manner of swallowing humble bees. They 
do not seem much to enjoy the treat, as the enemy 
are never conquered without some contest. They 
are at first obliged to reject them on account of their 
sharp stings and rough hair ; but they return again 
to the attack, and each time cover the bees with a 
viscid matter which proceeds from the frog’s tongue, 
till they are at length sufficiently coated to be swal- 
lowed without injury. Their alertness in catching 
flies induced the doctor, while at Gottingen, to 
make them his guards for keeping these trouble- 
some insects from his dessert of fruit ; and he as- 
sures us they acquitted themselves to his satisfac- 
tion. 
Captain Stedman has recorded a battle between 
one of this species and a snake, to which he was 
witness while paddling up a river of Surinam in a 
canoe. One of the officers who was in the canoe 
pointed out the objects in the top of a mangrove 
tree ; and when they were first seen the head and 
shoulders of the frog were in the jaws of the snake, 
which, to use the captain’s expression, was about 
the size of a large kitchen poker. This creature 
had its tail twisted round the tough limb of the 
mangrove, while the frog, which appeared about the 
size of a man’s fist, had firmly grasped a twig with 
his hind feet. In this position they were contend- 
ing, the one for his life, the other for his dinner, 
forming one straight line between the two branches; 
and thus they continued to behold them for some 
