260 POPULAR SCRIPTURE ZOOLOGY.

The muscular formation in the frog is very singular, and,
in many respects, more nearly resembles that of man than
any other animal. Mr. Broderip observes that “we find
the rounded, elongated, conical thigh, the knee extending
itself in the same direction with the thigh-bone, and a well-
fashioned calf to the leg. It is impossible to watch the
horizontal motions of a frog in the water, as it is impelled
by its muscles and webbed feet, without being struck by
the complete resemblance, in this portion of its frame, to
human conformation, and the almost perfect identity of the
movements of its lower extremities with those of a man
making the same efforts in the same situation. By the aid
of these well-developed lower limbs, and the prodigious
power of their muscular and bony levers, a frog can raise
iteelf in the air to twenty times its own height, and traverse,
at a single bound, a space more than fifty times the length
of its own body.”

Frogs are very tenacious of life, and as they are about
four years in coming to maturity, they probably would live
to the age of twelve if their many enemies by land and
water did not cut short their natural term of existence.

The common frog varies considerably in colour: the ge-
neral tinge is olive-brown, spotted on the upper part of the