British reptiles and batrachians . e minerals or green sprays withwhich their home was furnished, but this little frog was muchgiven to climbing up the side of the bowl and clinging there, andI have no doubt it had been struck by the intensely hot sun otthat day. The bony structure and muscles of a frog are extremely likeour own, only modified to suit its requirements. In the skeleton,(fig. 22) you see how admirably the powerful hind limbs are adaptedfor leaping. It is common to say of a frog, as of a grasshopper, 52 REPTILES AND BATRACHIANS. it hops. The French word sauterelle is the more cor
British reptiles and batrachians . e minerals or green sprays withwhich their home was furnished, but this little frog was muchgiven to climbing up the side of the bowl and clinging there, andI have no doubt it had been struck by the intensely hot sun otthat day. The bony structure and muscles of a frog are extremely likeour own, only modified to suit its requirements. In the skeleton,(fig. 22) you see how admirably the powerful hind limbs are adaptedfor leaping. It is common to say of a frog, as of a grasshopper, 52 REPTILES AND BATRACHIANS. it hops. The French word sauterelle is the more correct termfor the latter; by the combined action of the legs both it and the frog perform a perfect leap,and no less nimble thanthe grasshopper is thefrog. The extra joint inthe leg might be called aheel, but is truly formedby the very elongatedankle bones. These bones,flat on the ground, mustassist the leaping, but arealso used as an speak of personselbowing their waythrough a crowd. Theelbows its waythis posterior joint,. frogwith not through a crowdcertainly, but to back itselfinto some safe retreat, asI shall presently foot of a frog is, asMivart shows us, a verymarvel of complexity,with an elaborate systemof muscles. The toes areextremely long, and thismuscular the little animal itspower of locomotion, bothon land and in water. Afrog has no ribs, thoughthose bony processes fromthe eight joints of thespine resemble ribs, andare as long as the true ribsof newts. While the froghas a shorter spine than any other vertebrate animal it has a breast-bone, sternum, and is the first example in the rising scale in which the sternum appears. We may now clothe our frog with muscles and skin, and observe its habits. As to colour, olive may be said to predominate ; but Fig. 22.—Skeleton of a frog. THE COMMON FROG. S3 with a brownish, reddish, or yellowish tinge, according to itssurroundings; because a frog changes its colour. There are, how-ever,
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