FROGS AND WASPS.
[To nut EDITOR OF THE "Srscritroa.":1 Sin,—As you and your readers seem interested in odds-and- ends of natural history, I send you one which may be worth publishing. Some time ago, I discovered accidentally that frogs are voracious eaters of wasps. I have in my garden a tank for watering, with an island of rock-work, which is a favourite haunt of frogs. The wasps just now are carrying on a raid against my fruit, and when I wish to gratify at once my rev en ge and my frogs, I catch a marauder between a post- card and an inverted wine-glass, carry him off to the tank, wet his wings to prevent his flying, and set him on the rock-work before the frogs. After a moment's pause, a frog advances, and in an instant the wasp has disappeared, drawn into the frog's mouth by a single dart of his long tongue. Occasionally the wasp reappears wholly or partially, having made it un- pleasant for the frog ; but he is almost always swallowed in the end. Usually, convulsive movements may be noticed in the frog's throat and body, as though the process of degluti- tion were not qui. e easy; but that they like the diet is evident from the fact that a single smallish frog has been known to t Lke three wasps one after another. Indeed, it is remarkable what very small frogs, quite infants, will swallow a wasp with avidity. This afternoon, a tiny frog swallowed a full-grown wasp, when a big r.lative went for him quite savagely, like a big schoolboy i hrashing a small one for presuming to be helped before him.—I am, Sir, &c.,
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