e bottom of
the pond. But although he can stay under water for a long time, he is
obliged to hold his breath while there, and when he would breathe must
come to the surface to do so. It is possible to drown him by holding
him under water.

[Illustration: A FROG.]

As a feeder the frog relies upon animal life, which he expertly seizes
with a tongue fastened by the wrong end, as compared with our tongues.
He is a certain marksman, and when he aims at an insect the chances
are that the insect will enter his stomach and be there speedily
changed into a new form of animal life.

Although from the moment the gills disappear the frog is a true land
animal, he is obliged, on account of the fish-like character of his
young, to lay his eggs in the water. For this purpose the frogs enter
the pools in early spring. The surface of every country pond swarms
with the bright-eyed little creatures. They have awakened from a
long, cold, winter sleep, to find the spring about them and within
them. Life has suddenly become abundant and joyous. Their sluggish
blood flows faster, their hearts beat quicker; they leap, they swim,
they swell out their throats and call to each other in various keys.
The toads are with them, and the pretty tree-frogs that change their
color to suit their emotions. And all are rapturously screaming. Their
voices are not musical, according to man's standard, but seem to
afford great satisfaction to the performers in the shrill orchestra of
the swamps, who thus give vent to the flood of life that sweeps
through them after the still, icy winter.

As though the new spring-life were too plentiful to find room in the
frogs and toads already existing, it calls for more frogs and toads;
and new creatures are born to share the extra vitality. Like the
flowers and the fish, the frogs, too, give forth new life. Within
them, too, the miracle is performed. The tiny eggs of the one wake up
and begin to grow. The tiny living bodies in the fertilizing principle
of the other also wake up and begin to grow. But higher life is better
guarded, because less prolific. The frog and the toad lay but few eggs
as compared with the fish. Fish eggs may drop under the stones or
float away, and so escape the vital touch of the fertilizing
principle. There are so many that numbers may be lost and yet enough
remain to continue the family. Not so with the frog family. No egg may
be lost. So we find that the eggs of the frog are not dropped s