Page:Natural History, Reptiles.djvu/255

Rh discerning those who treat it kindly. If kept in a garden, it proves a very useful inhabitant, by its services in devouring noxious insects, and particularly the small species of slug which is so destructive to vegetation. The number of these which a single Frog will devour is truly surprising.

This is the most numerous in species of all the Families of the Amphibia, and the one which deviates most in its manners from the rest. The Tree-frogs reside habitually among the foliage of trees, among which they hop and leap almost with the agility of the birds that tenant the groves conjointly with them. They are able to cling to the leaves on which they alight, with exact precision, and to walk on them in all positions, and even on their under surfaces, without falling off, just as a fly alights on the ceiling of a room, and rests or crawls there. The smoothness of the leaves, or other surfaces on which they rest, offers no impediment to the security of their position, for they do not derive their power from the inequalities of the surface. “The monkey grasps with its paws the perch on which it rests; the bird with its claws; the snake twines itself around the branch; the iguana uses its long toes and hooked nails; the chameleon holds the bough tight between its vice-like toes; but the foot of the Tree-frog acts differently from the foot of these animals: it is not a grasping organ, nor is it furnished with claws for clinging; but it