act only when they are relaxed and moist. That is
the reason why a frog's skin is always moist, and why a frog requires
moist air. It does not need this constantly, because, when moisture is
abundant, there is a bag in which it stores up superfluity of water, to
be used in any day of need. It is this water--pure and clear--which
frogs or toads expel when they are alarmed by being handled. Is not
enough said here, to rescue frogs from our contempt? We may add, that
they are capable of understanding kindness--can be tamed. Frogs
hybernate under the mud of ponds, where they lie close together, in a
stratum, till the spring awakens them to a renewal of their lives and
loves. They lay a vast number of eggs, at the bottom of the water; and
the multitudes of young frogs that swarm upon the shore when their
transformation is; complete, has given rise to many legends of a shower
of frogs. These multitudes provide food for many animals, serpents, as
we have seen, birds, fish. And the survivors are our friends.

The other species of frog found in this country is the Edible Frog
(_Rana esculenta_). It has for a long time had a colony in Foulmire Fen,
in Cambridgeshire, although properly belonging to a continental race. It
differs from our common frog in wanting a dark mark that runs from eye
to shoulder, and in having, instead of it, a light mark--a streak--from
head to tail along the centre of the back. The male is a more portentous
croaker than our own familiar musicians, by virtue of an air-bladder on
each cheek, into which air is forced, and in which it vibrates
powerfully during the act of croaking. This kind of frog is always in or
near the water, and being very timid, plunges out of sight if any one
approaches.

These are our frogs; as for our two Toads, they are by no means less
innocent. They are the Common Toad, by style and title _Bufo vulgaris,_
and a variety of the Natter Jack Toad, to be found on Blackheath, and in
many places about London, and elsewhere. The toad undergoes
transformations like the frog. It is slower in its movements, and less
handsome in appearance: similar in structure. There is a somewhat
unpleasant secretion from its skin, a product of respiration. There is
nothing about it in the faintest degree poisonous. It is remarkably
sensible of kindness; more so than the frog. Examples of tame toads are
not uncommon. Stories are told of the discovery of toads alive, in
blocks of marble, where no air coul