Not so the frogs, which, like the bony fishes, began their career in later times, and have known how to fit themselves into many nooks and corners in life. In almost all countries of the globe they hop merrily about the ponds and ditches, never wandering far from the water, into which they jump and dive whenever danger threatens. It is true they are eaten by thousands, both as tadpoles and frogs, by birds, snakes, water-rats, and fish, and even by each other, but they multiply fast enough to keep up the supply, and find plenty of insects both in and out of the ponds. Nor have they kept entirely to a watery life, for their near relations, the toads, which have toothless mouths and toes less webbed, have ventured much farther on to the land, protected partly, no doubt, by the disagreeable acrid juice which they can throw out from a gland behind the eye whenever they are attacked. It is curious to notice the quiet leisurely waddle of the sluggish toad, as he spreads out his short fat legs and puffs out his warty skin, and to compare him with the nervous, anxious, little frog, starting at every danger. And still more curious is it to see him getting out of his skin, as he does several times a year. For his skin does not peel off in pieces as it does in the watery frogs, but splits along his back; then he wriggles about till it lies in folds on his sides and hips, and, putting one of his hind feet between the front ones, draws the skin off the leg like a stocking off a foot. With the other leg he does the same, and then, drawing out his front legs, pulls the whole skin forward, and stripping it over his head, swallows it; thus deliberately putting his old coat inside him, and appearing in one that is glossy, fresh, and new. The toad has many enemies in spite of his acrid taste, and he shows his wisdom by hiding in walls and under stones in the daytime, and coming out in the dusk of evening to hunt the beetles and grubs so often out of reach of the water-loving frog. [Illustration: Fig. 19. The Flying Tree-Frog of New Guinea[62] (_Wallace_).] But the toad is not the only land relation of the frog; there are others of the group that venture even farther from water; for in most parts of the world (though not in England), tree-frogs, with sucking disks at the ends of their toes and fingers, climb the trees and hunt for insects among the leaves and branches; while in Borneo Mr. Wallace found one (Fig. 19) with webbed feet, which it spread out, and so flew down from the trees. There are plenty of the ordinary tree-climbing frogs to be seen in the south of France, their small green bodies peeping out from under the dull gray olive-leaves; and to be heard, too, in an endless chorus all night long when the spring arrives.