7. At last the tail shrinks away, and the tadpole has become a perfect frog. In hot weather all these changes take place in a few weeks; but when it is cold, they take a longer time. 8. The frog, when full grown, can live on the land or in the water. It can stay under water some time, but must come to the top to breathe. LESSON XLVIII. _MORE ABOUT FROGS._ [Illustration] 1. Each Mrs. Frog lays about one thousand eggs, and if they all hatched and grew, every swampy country would soon be overrun with frogs. 2. But fish, birds, and serpents eat them in such numbers that they only about hold their own year by year. Some kinds of frogs are also found to be good food for men, and are caught for that purpose. 3. Frogs are lively and noisy in the first warm days of spring and summer. The little peeping frogs keep up their shrill music all night and day, and with it we hear the deep voice of the bull-frog, like a bass-drum heard at a distance. 4. The bull-frog is the largest of the frog kind. It eats worms, insects, and snails, and sometimes it even eats its own tadpoles. [Illustration] 5. In summer, we hear among the trees a shrill kind of whirring sound, which is kept up for a long time without any pause. This is the song of the tree-frog, sometimes called the tree-toad. 6. This is a very small frog. It is born in the water, like other frogs; but when it comes out in the spring, it climbs into the trees and lives there. 7. Its feet spread out into broad, flat toes, from the bottom of which comes out a sticky fluid. By means of these toes, which partly act as suckers, the frog can crawl along on the under side of branches without falling. 8. The color of the tree-frog is so much like that of the wood it clings to that it can not be seen unless we look very closely for it. LESSON XLIX. _THE FRIENDLY TOAD._ [Illustration] 1. The toad, which we find in our gardens and yards slowly crawling about, or making short hops, is a cousin of the frog, and is made very much like him. 2. The frog has a smooth skin; but the skin of the toad is thick, and is covered with warts. It has a larger mouth than the frog, and, on the whole, it can not be called handsome. 3. The toad, like the frog, is usually born in the water, and is at first a tadpole. When it loses its gills and tail, it comes out of the water and lives upon the land, until it goes into the water again in the spring to lay its eggs. 4. Sometimes the toad can not reach the water at the proper time, and then the tadpole changes to a perfect toad soon after it is hatched. 5. The toad feeds on insects, and is very useful about the garden, as it picks off the grubs and beetles that destroy the fruit and flowers. 6. It eats only living insects, and it never chases its prey. It will sit motionless until a fly or other insect comes within reach, and then it darts out its tongue so rapidly that the little victim can not escape.