Ranidae 



fringe of sombre alder enriching the 

 brilliancy of a red maple and setting 

 off 'the delicacy of a leaning grey 

 birch. On one side the meadow 

 slopes gently to the edge of the 

 water. The bottom of the pond is 

 a mat of delicate green, with lifted 

 layers forming black openings lead- 

 ing to hidden caverns. The water 

 is very clear. Suddenly the sun 

 goes under a cloud, and the water 

 becomes dark and impenetrable to 

 the sight. A gust of wind sends 

 the smooth surface into thousands 

 of ripples that race toward the 

 edge, but before they reach it a 

 reverse wind hurries them off to one 

 side, and all is still again. A song- 

 sparrow sings from the shelter of 

 the alders. Again the sun comes 

 out, and the bottom of the pond 

 is again illuminated. The smallest 

 object can be seen distinctly. 

 Brown tadpoles appear, and with 

 vigorous tail-wigglings begin nib- 

 bling the green of the pond bottom. 

 A few of them rise to the surface 

 to rest in the sunshine. There 



creeps a caddis-fly larva, clumsily carrying its log house. Long- 

 legged water-striders walk on the surface where there were none a 

 moment before. Black, flat-bottomed whirligig beetles skate over 

 the surface in interlacing courses that never end. From one of the 

 dark cavern doors a black, yellow-spotted salamander 1 appears, 

 moves slowly and gracefully over the green, to disappear within 

 another arched doorway in the green. A painted turtle in the 

 shallow margin water lumbers over the green with head bent 

 downward, and disappears underneath. Suddenly frogs' heads 

 are lifted above the green, and then above the water. They are 

 Green Frogs; the water is so clear and so illuminated, that we 



The Green Frog captures the 

 damsel-flies before their wings are 

 dried. 



1 Amblystoma tigrinum 



2O2 



