The great interest of the natural history of the Amphibia consists especially in their intermediate position between the lower and higher Vertebrates. The lower Amphibia approach very closely to the Dipneusta in their whole organisation, live mainly in the water, and breathe by gills; but the higher Amphibia are just as close to the Amniotes, live mainly on land, and breathe by lungs. But in their younger state the latter resemble the former, and only reach the higher stage by a complete metamorphosis. The embryonic development of most of the higher Amphibia still faithfully reproduces the stem-history of the whole class, and the various stages of the advance that was made by the lower Vertebrates in passing from aquatic to terrestrial life during the Devonian or the Carboniferous period are repeated in the spring by every frog that develops from an egg in our ponds. (FIGURE 2.262. Larva of the common grass-frog (Rana temporaria), or "tadpole." m mouth, n a pair of suckers for fastening on to stones, d skin-fold from which the gill-cover develops; behind it the gill-clefts, from which the branching gills (k) protrude, s tail-muscles, f cutaneous fin-fringe of the tail.) The common frog leaves the egg in the shape of a larva, like the tailed salamander (Figure 2.261), and this is altogether different from the mature frog (Figure 2.262). The short trunk ends in a long tail, with the form and structure of a fish's tail (s). There are no limbs at first. The respiration is exclusively branchial, first through external (k) and then internal gills. In harmony with this the heart has the same structure as in the fish, and consists of two sections--an atrium that receives the venous blood from the body, and a ventricle that forces it through the arteries into the gills.