Ranidae 



great gill stretched over the whole body. In consequence the 

 frog not only can live under the water for months at a time, but 

 will, by preference, spend a very large portion of his time lying, 

 with flattened body and closed nostrils, at the bottom of the 

 pond. 



If we go rowing on river, lake, or park lagoon some moon- 

 light night in late June, we are certain to hear the deep-toned 

 call of the Bullfrog many times. Coming as it does at unex- 

 pected intervals and from unexpected directions, it seems 

 startlingly weird in the quiet of the night. For June nights are 

 quiet. The insect orchestras are not yet in full swing and the 

 frog choruses have disbanded. The toads are still calling, though 

 much more feebly than earlier in the season, and the voices of 

 only a few can be heard, whereas there were hundreds in May. 

 The Bullfrog does not sing in chorus; the call is an isolated one. 

 The notes are so low in pitch that we think of him as the bass 

 viol among the batrachia. The call resembles, to a consider- 

 able degree, the roar of a distant bull, but it has a more musi- 

 cal ring, and the notes are less blended and slurred. The pitch 

 varies with the individual. The following are four interesting 

 annotations of the bullfrog's call: 1 



The call can be imitated well by saying with a hoarse, deep- 

 toned voice the syllables of various interpretations of it, such 

 as, " Be drowned," " Better go round," " Jug o' rum," or " More 

 rum." The imitation is especially good if the slurred words 

 are repeated in front of some reverberating hollow body. That 

 the call has a musical quality was once illustrated most ludic- 

 rously. During the rehearsal of a chorus of female voices, a 

 big yellow-throated Bullfrog, in an adjoining room, began vig- 

 orously ejaculating, " Jug o' rum, jug o' rum, jug o' rum." 

 Several persons were deceived for the moment into thinking 

 that the bass voice of the director had joined the chorus, for it 

 happened that the first few notes of the frog were in time and 

 harmony with the chords of the selection. A tame Bullfrog 



1 Familiar Life in Field and Forest. F. Schuyler Matthews. D. Appleton & Co. 



232 



