The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1894-07-01

therefore. Of the way in which nature
enables creatures to adapt themselves TO
the environment.
1t is a popular fallacy that toads are
hurtful while frogs are harmless. Yet
toads cannot bite, because they have no
teeth. while frogs can bite, because they
have a row of teeth along the margin OF
the upper Jaw. l have, however, often
had my finger in a pet frogs mouth with
out anV painful result. I suppose that the
objection TO toads arises from the fact
that they eject a milky fluid from an OBJ
long prominence behind each eye. Dogs
dislike this fluid exceedingly, and II a
toad elects it any into water where tad
poles are kept. they are strongly affected
by it. A frog found in the south Of France
has the power Of eXuding vapor which
smells so strongly of garlic as to make the
ewes water. Tree-frogs of Central America
are avoided by frog eating animals, prob
ably because Of similar nauseOus secre-
tions These peculiarities of frogs and
toads are the nearest approach TO the
possession of poison organs.
Did you ever watch a frog breathe} As
il has no ribs, the action is not accom-
panied by the alternate rising and falling
of the chest which we usually associate
with breathing; but the creature swallows
the air, drawing it through the nostrils
with the mouth closed. Frogs throw OF
carbonlc acid from the skin, so that
respiration must be carried on through
that also. Moisture is necessary for this,
as it is for the gills of fish, and the frog,
therefore. can absorb water through the
skin 10 a marvellous extent, so that it can
take in half its own weight in half an
hour, and in a few hours fully its own
weight. The habitat of the animal is in
moist places; dryness and dust are fatal
to them.
have often watched frogs and toads,
in the frames of a garden, take flies
and beetles from the foliage with their
tongues, and the rapidity with which the
insect is captured is astonishing. The
frogs tongue is a curious organ. Unlike
mans, which is fastened at the back, it is
free there, and fixed in front In taking
an insect, the posterior end, which is en-
larged into a kind of bulb, Is thrown for
ward, turning upon the anterior end as on
a hinge. The bulb is provided with a
viscid secretion which leaves but little
chance of escape. Only four exceptions
to this formation are known-one Ameri-
can, one African, and one Australian have
no tongue at all; while Mexican species
has its tongue fixed like ours.
Notwithstanding all my efforts I have
never satisfactorily seen frog in the act
of croaking. Edward Jesse says he has,
and he would lead one to infer that the
sound is produced by air passing down
the throat in a series of beads. The vocal
organs differ in different species, and an
accurate observer can tell YOU the kind of
frog by the sound it makes. The power
of croaking is a privilege of the males
for even if the females possess the organs,
they are but little developed, and in
many species the females are entirely
destitute of vocal powers In the green
tree-frog and the edible frog the
males are provided with bladder
like Cheek-pouches which can
be protruded through assures at
the corners of the mouth. These pouches
are distended from the windpipe, and it
has seemed to me that here we have
something analogous TO the drone of the
bagpipes. The edible frog is called on
the continent of Europe the Dutch night
ingale, in England the Cambridgeshire
nightingale.
The bullfrog, whose boom" is well
known has a different apparatus. Ger
tain portions of the larynx are convex
externally and concave.Ginternally, and
when the entrance TO the larYnX Is closed
there is dome over the windpipe, which
Cuvier compared to a kettledrum.
The sounds emitted of frogs are of vari-
Gus quality. Darwin found those of some
little tree-frogs at Rio Janeiro sweet
chirping notes in harmony" Wallace
says that on the Amazon he heard three
different sOunds-a disagreeable dismal
Croak, an approaching railway train, a
blacksmith hammering on his anvil. 1t is
said. on good authority too, that there is a
species at Surinam with such a disa-
greeable voice, and so much of it, that
when several are CrOaking at the same
time, they drown the orchestra in the
theater of Paramaribo.
1t is well known that frogs hibernate
like the bear, marmot, dormouse, etc.
The last named secrete a large amount of
fat in their tissues in order that they
may keep up their vitality by absorbing
it. Frogs also store up a yellow fatty
substance, not in the tissues of the flesh,
but in the membrane which covers the in
testines.
We have all heard of the showers of
frogs, which are generally recorded as
occurring in the dull season" "Credi-
BILE witnesses (rather credulous) are
ready to testify that they saw them fall,
but | fear the cause is far more proSaiC
than the agencies of whirlwinds and
water-spouts as often brought into opera
tion for this purpose The young frogs
emerge from their tadpole state, seek the
land hide under stones, clods, roots. in
crevices and in cracks in myriads. We
do not see the little notified brown things,
simply because we do not look for them.
but heavy shower comes, and out they
flock in thousands.
Frogs have long been regarded as
weather prophets. Virgil, IN the Geor-
GIGS, gives among other signs of rain
The frogs singing their old complaint in
the mud In Germany the green tree
frogs are commonly used as indicators of
weather, being kept for the purpose in
tall glass jars with wooden ladders. The
steps of the ladders are the degrees-the
higher the frog climbs the better the
weather, if the creature seeks the bottom
ii is sure to rain.
Frogs are divided into true frogs and
tree-frogs There is no installing the
latter. for the ends of their toes are
expanded into knobs or discs, supplied
with sticky secretion to aid in climbing
foliage.
The common frog is not eaten, though
it is very widely distributed throughout
the northern temperate regions of both
hemispheres. 1t does occur in Ireland.
not having been banished by the patron
of the verdant isle. The edible frog is
found in the temperate regions of the
eastern hemisphere, but not in America.
Here its place is supplied by the marsh
frog. The bullfrog is also eaten here. its
supposed power of keeping springs clear
not availing to save it from the epicure
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