lume of the British Zoology. It is likewise found in Marwick-head, Hoy, Walls, Copinsha, and elsewhere in Orkney; likewise in the Fair Isle and Foula; as also in Lamhoga of Fetlor, Fitful, and Sumburgh-Heads of Shetland.

Never more than one pair of this species inhabit the same rock; and when the young are fit, they are driven out to seek new habitations for themselves. The falcon's nest, like the eagle's, is always in the very same spot, and continues so past memory of man.

The Frog.]

NATURAL HISTORY OF ORKNEY.

153

CLASS III.-REPTILES.

GENUS I.—THE FROG.

Gen. Char-Body naked; four legs, the feet divided into five toes; no tail.

Rana aquatica, Raii Syn. Quad. 447. Lin. Sys. 377. Brit. Zool. III. 3.

FOUND in vast numbers in a small loch near Stromness, where they deposit their spawn in the spring, which soon becomes a sort of fish-like animalculi, making its way through the waters by the wriggling motion of a membranous tail. The shape of it in its tadpole state is a flatted hemisphere, or rather ellipse, in one end of which is placed the mouth and eyes, and the other contains the tail. When the tadpoles have been some days in the water, the hind legs begin to appear on each side of the tail, which then begins to grow shorter ; these still appear plainer, till the thighs are excluded, and the

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body shrinks from its roundish figure, and the loins are formed. The fore-feet are then thrust out by degrees, and the creature having no more need of its tail it disappears, and the new animal leaves its watery habitation for the land, to which, however, it is not so closely confined but it can visit its first abode. The tail of a tadpole makes an excellent object in the solar microscope, and serves much better for illustrating the long-disputed proposition concerning the circulation of the blood, than those cruel operations often performed upon the larger animals, with neither half the pleasure nor satisfaction, for here it is rendered as visible, and conveyed to us in as direct a manner as our senses can.

The frog is so common an animal as to need no description, though not here very common in its frog state, owing, I suppose, to the vast numbers of tame geese and ducks reared here, which perhaps devour them.

Species 2-The Toad.

Bufo sive Rubetra, Raii Syn. Quad. 252. Rana Bufo, Lin. Sys. 354. Brit. Zool. III. 7. Sib. Scot. 13.

THIS species is often found in the evenings in gardens, crawling in search of food no doubt; never leaps as the frog; its appearance ugly, and in some measure terrifying. Whereever it is to be found, the same prepossession against it, all give it up to destruction, and often practise the most wanton cruel

ty over this poor creature, who is perhaps no further blameable than in having but an ordinary outside ;-hard fate! that its features should be its ruin; but in this respect it is not singular. It seems odd that mankind should take pleasure alike in destroying the most horrid and the most beautiful pieces of the creation.

Mr Pennant, in his British Zoology, has been at great pains to vindicate this creature from the character it has long laboured under, of being poisonous, and with arguments and proofs has set this matter almost out of dispute, and, indeed, as he well observes, its unhappy deformity seems to be the only reason for suspecting harm from it. Of all the lugubrous stories I have heard with regard to the toad, I never could get one fixed to time and place, or even persons, all of them hearsays; and however unjust it is to be condemned upon hearsay, this seems to have been the fate of this animal. It is certain that, added to its deformity, nature has thrown it into a class of animals, many of whom are confessedly dangerous; but these are all furnished with proper weapons of offence, and the manner and reason of their doing harm is easily traced; this, however, is not the case with the toad. I have not heard from any acquainted with dissections, that he is furnished with the fangs of the viper, or the pretended stings of other serpents; it furnishes a meal for many other animals, who would be as ready to be affected by this supposed poison as man. In a word, we may consider this reptile as harmless, and affirm there is no venomous creature above an insect in the Orkneys.