An Intelligence of the Frog

Abstract

DR. ROMANES, in his “Animal Intelligence,” p. 254, says that, “frogs seem to have definite ideas of locality.” This matter appears to have been noticed of old by the Japanese and Chinese, inasmuch as we credit Ryōan Terashima's explanation of the names given to the frog by the two nations. In his “Illustrated Encyclopædia of Three Systems of Japan and China,” completed in 1713 (new edition, Tokio, 1884, book liv. p. 553), he remarks:—“When frogs are ‘removed far’ (Chinese, hia), they always long (Chinese, má) alter the original locality; hence the Chinese name ‘Hia-má’. For the similar reason the Japanese call them ‘Kaeru’ (meaning ‘return’).” Shisei Tagawa (1707–76), one of the most erudite lexicographers of Japan, holds to the same opinion in his “Dast from a Sawyer's Workshop” (Tokio, 1891, p. 8).