A Modern System of Natural History Author:Samuel Ward Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. Excerpt from book: Section 3d. 7 In which it agrtes with the Wad, the lizard, and the ferpent. The egg which produces ft tadpole, is ftnall, black, End globular, and is fur- rounded With two different kinds tex... more »tit{of liquor: that which immediately furrouivJs it, is clear and tranfparent, and contnai- ed textit{hi its proper membrane ; that which furrounds the whole is muddy and mucous : the tadpole receives its nounfh- ment from the teafifparent liquor, ifl the fame manner as young birds ate fupport- ed by the Vrhtte of ths egg. Whin this membrane is broken, the tadpole adheres With its mourh to part of it for forne ttoae; and nd its foen textit{its h gets free, ftnfcs to the bottom of the water; whence it nfere* rifes trMle It fcofttiftues in its tadpole ftatc. When they are releafed frbfn their tadpole ftate, they irtimsdiately take to land; and, if the weathir has been hot, und fome (howtirs fall tb refrefli the eafth, the ground is Ibmetimes feen, for a con- ifidewbJe fpace, peffe^l^ Mackened by myriads of thelc animalcules, feeking for foiwe ftcure lurking places. Henfee fortie * have irhagined that thefe anirnals were generated in the clouds, and thus Romlaletius, 216—Wermii Muf, 327 ered down on the earth. Bat had they, like our countryman Derham, traced them to the next poo], they would have .found a better folution of the difficulty. The frog is longer out of the water than in it; but when the cold nights begin to fet in, it returns to its native element; always choofing ftagnant wa- . ters, where it can lie concealed at the bottom. textit{'. Frogs, as well as all other reptiles, feed but a fmall fpace of the year. During winter, frogs and toads remain in a torpid ftate; the latter of which will dig into the earth and coyer themfelves with almoft as much agility as the mple. Frogs live upon infeds of all kind...« less