and arouses their curiosity; several jump at it, and the one which swallows the bait can be lifted out before it has time to let go. However, this is after all poor sport; the game is too eager. When a boy I have often caught them with a noose of slender wire at the end of a long hazel rod. They do not mind the rod at all, their attention being fixed on the person; they allow the noose to be slipped over their heads, and a sudden jerk secures the captive. In this way they can be singled out individually. Old frogs are more wary and experienced than the younger members; they take up safer positions, and by their sudden plunges give the alarm. [Illustration: FIG. 51.–_Rana esculenta._ × 1. Three stages of the movement of the tongue.] The males are great musicians, singing for sheer enjoyment not only during the pairing time, but throughout the months of June and July. Warm moonlit nights are the favourite times {269}for the concert, which takes place in the water, beginning at sunset, and continuing until the early dawn. A few individuals here and there utter a single note, "gwarr, oo-arr," or "coarx," but these are only preliminaries. The precentor–the country-folk in North Germany firmly believe that in each pond one old male holds the dignified position of choir-master–begins with a sharp-sounding "brekeke," and this is the signal for all the others to chime in with the same notes, varied with all sorts of other sounds, bass, tenor, and alto, each performer filling its resounding vocal sacs to bursting size, and these bags then look as if they acted as floats. When there are several hundred of these sociable creatures, the din is continuous, and may be heard more than a mile off. There can be too much of this, just as there can be too many nightingales; and a well-stocked pond in the neighbourhood may become a perfect nuisance. There are accounts of servants having been employed in the Middle Ages for the sole purpose of keeping the noise down by beating the pond, throwing stones into the water, or otherwise disturbing the frogs. Sometimes more vigorous and lasting measures seem to have been taken; the monks exorcised them in order not to be disturbed in their vigils. Near the former monastery of Chorin, in the province of Brandenburg, the frogs have still the reputation of keeping very quiet on account of some powerful abbot who threatened them with awful consequences if they did not forego their concerts. [Illustration: FIG. 52.–_Rana esculenta._ Male with inflated external vocal sacs. × 1.]