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The FROG FISH of Surinam. 
r JpHE Frog Fish is an animal whofe Angularity claims our attention.. 
It is not to be met with in the Britifti Mufeum, or in any private 
Englifii collection, except that of Dr. Fothergill. It was brought from Su¬ 
rinam in South America. 
In the Appendix to Meritin's Natural Hiftory of the infeCts of that country, 
where fhe treats of the transformation of fifties into frogs, and frogs into fifties, 
after explaining the manner in which the European frog is changed from a di¬ 
minutive fifh or tadpole into a.perfect frog, file proceeds to defcribe the gra¬ 
dual transformation of a fpecies of Frog found in thefe parts into a perfect 
fifti, and illufirates her defcription by five figures, from the collection of 
Albert Seba at Amfterdam, to whom the was likewife indebted for feveral 
curious hints on this fubjedt. 
Linneus calls this animal paradoxa in his Syfiema Naturae, p. 212, and 
quotes the former Edition of that work where it is called lacerta cauda an - 
cipiti, paltnis tetradaBylus fijjis, plantis pentadaBylis palmatis abdomine ventrieafo. 
Meriaris figures are flightly copied in the annexed plate : fhe tells us the 
firft: figure fhews the perfect frog, brown, yellow, and green, in fpots, but 
paler on the belly; the hinder feet webbed like the goofe, the fore feet 
without webs : in fize like the full grown European frog. Her fecond fi¬ 
gure reprefents the firft; transformation by the appearance of a tail; after¬ 
wards it gradually aftumes the ftiape of a fifti, the -two fore feet decreafing 
and perifhing by degrees, as is fhewn jig. 3. the decreafe of the hinder legs 
is exhibited fig . 4. and laftly, the animal is changed to a fifh, fig. 5. 
Both natives and Europeans in that country called thefe fifties jakjes. They 
are cartilaginous, of a fubfiance like our mujiela , and exquifite food; they 
are formed with regular vertebrae, and finall bones all over the body, divid¬ 
ed into equal parts ; are firftc darkifti and then grey; their fcales make a 
beautiful appearance. 
Frogs, 
