FACTS ABOUT FROGS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIV, Issue 117, 20 May 1933, Page 3 (Supplement)

FACTS ABOUT FROGS.

(Sent in by Jleather Graham, 8, Ponsonby Terrace, Ponsonby.) Soon we shall no longer be able to bear that droning t-horus of sound which during the past summer mouths has been issuing from every marsh, swamp, and pond in the green countryside. How delightful it is to see these tiny musicians—these little greenish-yellow creatures happily sieging a froggy love song to their mates^—their yellow throats puffing in and out and swelling to such an extent that they seem to be almost at bursting point. Meanwhile the objccts of these amorous attentions squat motionless 011 rocks or floating leaves, apparently all attention, but with goggling eyes ever on the look-out for some juicy lly or insect. We notice that these females never attempt to sing, their throats are white and not yellow as in the case of the males, and they are also slightly larger in size. If we watched closely we would perhaps see an insect resting 011 a leaf immediately in front of a frog, and within half an inch of its liose. Frogg'ie, however, seems not at all disturbed, but continues gazing straight at it, but making no attempt whatever to seize this tasty morsel. It is not that he is not hungry. Oh, 110! Immediately the insect moves Froggie is all alertness. Out pops his tongue, covered with a viscous, sticky substance, and the insect has disappeared. This tongue, whicl; the frog is so prompt in using, 's attached to the front of the lower jaw, and points backward down the throat when the mouth is closed. The apparent, lack of interest, while the insect was so near, is due to the fact that frogs cannot see a motiouless object even when looking straight at it. Much amusement can be gained from watching two frogs eagerly competing lor the same lly. No sooner has one, after several vigorous leaps, managed to grasp it in its mouth than th° other snaps at a fast-vanishing wing or leg in a vain endeavour to retrieve the escaping meal. At this onslaught the captor is forced to use both hands to cram every vestige of insect rapidly into his wide mouth until with a hard gulp and eyelids closed it is safelj* swallowed.

Now at the approach' of the colder winter days this merry chorus will cease, not to be renewed until the returning warmth calls to them next spring. Nature has so provided them that their summer energy slows down, their breathing ceases, and they spend the entire winter period under the soft mud at the edge of the pools.

Throughout the centuries there have existed many curious superstitions about frogs and toads. In the middle ages lyanv people thought that they possessed supernatural powers to cure sickness, and consequently sorcerers made frequent use of them in their medicines, sometimes giving their patients weird and indigestible concoctions, over which they had previously said incantations supposed to make the evil -spirit depart from the body of the sick person. In China also, toad skins have long been used as medicine.

Perhaps o- more curious superstition was that the glistening, beady eyes of the toad were an outward sign of the bohutv of the jewel concealed in its head. Therefore this toadstone was much sought after, being considered an antidote for poisons. It was frequently worn in rings or as charms and amulets. Many primitive peoples have also known for hundreds of years of the poison obtainable from various kinds of t.heso tailless amphibians. In Columbia the Indians used the poison to poison their arrows. By exposing a single toad to heat, sufficient poison can be scraped from its back to poison fifty arrows.

A meat use to which this poison is put however, is that .of "dyeing parrots. The natives pluck the green and blue feathers from the neck of the Amazon parrot and touch the bare skni with the skin of a live toad, so that when the young feathers appear they are yellow instead of green. these artificially coloured parrots are in great demand in South American countries.