A history of British reptiles / By Thomas Bell.

  • Thomas Bell
Date:
1849
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A history of British reptiles / By Thomas Bell. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    he regularly (and, contrary to the cold-blooded tendency of his nature) came out of his hole in the evening, and directly made for the hearth in front of a good kitchen-fire, where he would continue to bask, and enjoy himself until the family retired to rest. There happened to be at the same time a favourite old domestic cat, and a sort of intimacy or attachment existed between these two incongruous inmates; the Frog frequent- ly nestling under the warm fur of the cat, whilst the cat appeared extremely jealous of interrupting the comforts and convenience of the Frog. This curious scene was often witnessed by many besides the family. In its general form it is more slender than the Toad, though less so than many species of true Frog. The head forming half an oval, or nearly so ; the snout rounded ; the mouth horizontal, linear ; the gape very wide, extending as far as the posterior margin of the orbit; teeth placed in a single row in the upper jaw and on the palate, very minute ; none in the lower; tongue soft, fleshy, spatula-shaped and notched, the anterior portion folded back upon the posterior when not in use; eyes elevated above the forehead. The back is generally flat, excepting at the setting on of the pelvis, where it is sometimes a little raised. The fore-feet are of moderate size and length, with four toes, of which the third is slightly the longest, the second notably the shortest, as is probably the case in all the true Frogs; hinder legs very long, and very muscular, extending to more than half as long again as the body; hinder toes five in number, long, slender, palmated, the fourth toe being by much the longest. Skin naked, smooth. The male is smaller and more slender than the female. The changes which the colour of the Frog undergoes both in intensity and in hue, from the variation of tempe-
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