What is the life history of our frog? From seed to seed is plant-life story; from egg to egg is frog story. The eggs of the frog are deposited in roundish masses attached to sticks lying in water, or to the stems and leaves of submerged water-plants. The creature which comes from this egg is no more like a frog, than a caterpillar is like a butterfly. It has a big head and no limbs, and what of it is not head seems to be tail. In fact, in this stage the creature is more like a fish than a frog, and has branched gills. The gills are nearly covered by a fold of skin. Have you seen it? It is a tadpole. This tadpole can live only in water, and swims and feeds from the first instant of its free life. Change in its shape begins almost immediately: the branched gills are drawn within the neck and hidden; a pair of fore-legs begin to bud, and then a pair of hind-legs bud and push out faster than the fore-legs. As the legs grow the tail is gradually absorbed and disappears. Meanwhile the interior of the body changes; the lungs and heart become like those of a reptile. When first the tadpole emerged from the egg it ate the jelly-like egg cover: then, by means of a pair of little horny jaws, it ate soft animal or vegetable matter. When its gills and tail are gone, and its legs are fully formed, it hops out of the water a perfectly formed frog. Tadpoles feed on insects and also on each other. They are admirable preparers of small skeletons. Try the tadpole at this trade; drop into his pond a dead mouse, or bird, or frog, or squirrel. Soon you will find a clean, white skeleton, nice enough to put in any museum. The food of the adult frog is chiefly insects. Less hungry than when in the tadpole state,--for the tadpole like the child must not only eat to live but to grow--the frog is not often tempted to vary his diet. The frog, seated in cool leaf shadows, watches with his great, black, gold-ringed eyes for such insects as good fortune shall send past his retreat. As one hovers near, out flies his limber, sticky, notched, ribbon-like tongue, true to its mark. The insect adheres to the viscous surface of the projected ribbon, and is gently deposited in the open throat. During this process the frog maintains a calm, superior, self-satisfied expression, as if in this still hunt he not so much satisfied an appetite, as fulfilled a mission of ridding nature of superfluous insects. He seems to have no malice toward the insects; he is merely giving them an honorable burial, and saving them from the further perplexities of life.