Hylidae 



made rapidly. These frogs may have a colouring that is green, 

 light red-brown, clay colour, or a brown so dark as to look black 

 in general effect. The dark shades are taken on when the frogs aie 

 in dark situations, and especially when the darkness is combined 

 with a low temperature and moisture; the lighter colouration is 

 assumed under the influences of bright light, high temperature, 

 and dryness. 



The colour pattern of the Cricket Frog is a very definite one, 

 but at any given time it may be present in whole or in part, or 

 may not show at all. The pattern is made up of a triangular dark 

 patch between the eyes (the point of the triangle directed back- 

 ward), and three obliquely-placed oval patches of colour, one just 

 back of the eye and the other two on the sides of the body. The 

 triangle between the eyes may be outlined with light colour, either 

 green, reddish, or yellowish, and this light colour is continued in a 

 band from the backward-projecting point of the triangle along the 

 line of the back, to the posterior end of the body. This band of 

 colour is likely to be broad at its anterior and posterior ends and 

 narrow at the middle of the back, in the region just between the 

 two posterior oval colour patches of the sides. These patches of 

 colour on the sides are also usually bordered with light. 



The Cricket Frogs breed late, although they are more or less 

 active all winter. Their chorus is loudest in late April and early 

 May, and it is then that the eggs are laid, attached to grass blades 

 or leaves in the water. At this time the Swamp Tree Frog chorus 

 has disbanded and the Pickering's Hyla is singing only at night. 



The development of this frog is less rapid than that of the 

 Common Tree Frog, the Eastern Wood Frog, or the American 

 Toad. The tadpoles 1 may be found in the water as late as August. 

 The final transformation takes place in September. The young 

 tree frogs as well as the older ones seek shelter from the 

 cold under stones and leaves at the margins of their brook or 

 marsh. However, they have no long-continued hibernation, but 

 renew their activity whenever the sun is warm or the south winds 

 blow. 



1 The tadpoles of Acris may be identified, on close scrutiny, by the following characeristics: The 

 upper lip bears two rows of horny teeth; the lower lip has the same number. The teeth are not notched 

 at their tips. The border of the lower lip is not doubled in at the angles of the mouth. 



I 5 6 



