Animal life in the sea and on the land . Fis. 137.—Frogs Eggs. This mass is calledspawn, and it ismostly attached to sticksor grass in the waternear shore (Fig. 137). Thejelly holds the eggs to-gether, that they may notdrift away, and it alsosupplies nourishment tothe young animals whenfirst hatched. 212 ANIMAL LIFE IN THE SEA AND ON THE LAND. 3. Tadpoles.—If you should gather some of this frogspawn in the spring, and put it in a vessel of water witha few water-plants, you will have good entertainment forseveral weeks. First the round black specks begin tolengthen, then soon to wriggle about.
Animal life in the sea and on the land . Fis. 137.—Frogs Eggs. This mass is calledspawn, and it ismostly attached to sticksor grass in the waternear shore (Fig. 137). Thejelly holds the eggs to-gether, that they may notdrift away, and it alsosupplies nourishment tothe young animals whenfirst hatched. 212 ANIMAL LIFE IN THE SEA AND ON THE LAND. 3. Tadpoles.—If you should gather some of this frogspawn in the spring, and put it in a vessel of water witha few water-plants, you will have good entertainment forseveral weeks. First the round black specks begin tolengthen, then soon to wriggle about. Gradually the jellymass disappears, and the young tadpoles, with big blackheads, dart hither and thither, rapidly wagging their longflat tails as they swim through the water—a sight withwhich all country children are Fig. 138.—From a Tadpole to a Fkog. 4. Changes Tadpoles undergo.—When they grow a littlelarger you can discover feathery bunches hanging at thesides of the head, as in Fig. 138, a. These are outside a time the wide mouth appears, and we find thetadpole trying to nibble at objects around it. Little bylittle the outside gills shrink away, and the tadpole thenbreathes by taking water in at the mouth and allowingit to run out through slits in the neck. In this waythe water passes over internal gills the same as in , there is but little at this point in a tadpoles his- FROGS AND TOADS. 213 tory to distinguish it from a fish, and it bears very slightresemblance to the form it is soon to develop. 5. Eyes and nostrils now make their appearance (, b), and soon two little lumps come on the sides,which will grow some day into hind-legs (c). The frontlegs do not show until later, and then the tadpole is wellsupplied with limbs, having four legs and a broad swim
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1880, booksubjectzoology, bookyear1887
