134 
THE SAVAGE WORLD. 
the season and is monogamic. The deposition of eggs begins about the middle 
of March, at which time the female expels nearly one thousand eggs by a single 
effort, which are immediately fecundated by the male, after the manner of fishes, 
who ejects a milky substance, beclouding the water surrounding the eggs, in 
which envelope they remain only a short while before impregnation is accom¬ 
plished. The eggs now drop to the bottom, and after remaining there for four 
hours, begin to sensibly increase in size, as if expanded by gas, until they rise 
to the surface. Twenty-one days after being deposited a rent occurs on one 
side of the eggs, out of which protrudes a small tail; but not until the thirty- 
ninth day does the animal have motion, and two days later sheds its shell and 
falls to the bottom. One day later they have so increased in size and strength 
as to be able to rise to the surface again and feed off the jelly-like substance 
which had served them as a shell. A day later they assume the tadpole form, 
and three days thereafter fringes appear on either side of the neck, which do 
not develop, however, for three months. They now no longer depend upon the 
mucus, of which their original envelope was com¬ 
posed, for food, but begin a voracious consump¬ 
tion of pond-weed, off which they subsist until 
their legs are developed. It is not until the ninety- 
second day after hatching that two feet begin to 
appear at the base of the tail, and four days there¬ 
after they refuse vegetable food, teeth having now 
developed, for a more substantial diet. After the 
legs are formed the tail remains for several days, 
disappearing gradually by absorption, and giving 
the creature the appearance of a hybrid lizard. 
Having at length developed, the young frog quits 
its former element and goes on shore in quest of 
insects, but rarely strays away from damp dis¬ 
tricts. Tf the haunt become dry by reason of a 
drouth, the young frogs seek shelter under rocks, 
logs or roots, and there continue until a shower, 
when they emerge ir'om their retreat in such num¬ 
bers as to have given rise to the popular, though erroneous, belief, that they 
have dropped down with the rain. 
The frog lives, for the most part, out of water; but when the cold nights 
begin to set in, it returns to its native element, always choosing stagnant waters 
where it can lie without danger, concealed at the bottom. In this manner it 
continues torpid, or with but very little motion, all the winter; like the rest of 
the dormant race, it requires no food, and the circulation is slowly carried on 
without any assistance from the air. 
Frogs live upon insects of all kinds; but they never eat any unless it be 
alive and have motion. They continue fixed and immovable till their prey 
appears; and just when it comes sufficiently near, they jump forward with 
great agility, |lart out their tongues, and seize it with certainty. The tongue, 
in this animal, as in the toad, lizard and serpent kinds, is extremely long, and 
formed in such a manner that it swallows the point down its throat, so that a 
length of tongue is thus drawn, like a sword from its scabbard, to assail its 
prey. This tongue is furnished with a glutinous substance, and whatever 
metamorphoses op the frog. 
