424 [December, 



which species it bears only a remote resemblance. The illustrious naturalist to 

 whom we owe the first description of this animal was not so ignorant as to con- 

 found the two together. 



R. fontinalis. R. fontinalis L. C, Annals of Lyceum N. Y. vol. i. p. 282. R. 

 clamata Dumeril and Bibron vol. viii. p. 373. R. flavo-viridis and clamata 

 Harlan 1. c. p. 338. R. Horiconensis Holbrook 1. c, p. 85. R. fontinalis ejusdem 

 ibid. p. 87. 



A glandulous raised line always extends from the orbit to the sacral promi- 

 nence. The color varies, being ashy grey, greyish or blackish brown, olive, 

 yellowish green, rarely brown with a bronze reflection, sometimes without spots, 

 most frequently spotted with dark brown or dusky, particularly on the sides, 

 which are always lighter colored than the back. Beneath white or white spotted 

 or varied with dusky or brown. 



Inhabits the Northern States in springs or rivulets of cold water. In the 

 southern parts of our country the water is doubtless too warm for its existence. 



R. pipiens. R. pipiens Gmel. Lin. i. p. 1052. Ead. Bonaterre Encyc. method, 

 pi. iv. figs. 2 and 3. R. halicena Daudin Hist. Rain. p. 63. Eadem Holbrook 

 1. c. p. 91 et aliorum. R. melanotus Raf. R. utricularia Harlan, 1. c. p. 337. 



Above smooth, with, some scattered warts or small tubercles either round or 

 oblong, sometimes uniting so as to form four raised lines the anterior abbreviated 

 both before and behind, the^posterior only before, but both tubercles and lines 

 depending for their appearance on the will of the animal. Behind the eyes are 

 sometimes observed some large punctures. Color green, brownish green, brown 

 of various degrees of intensity, reddish and dusky, varying to all these at the 

 will of the animal ; when brown they have frequently a metallic gloss. The 

 upper lip and tympanum are often golden. When found in a state of torpidity 

 they are frequently almost black. There is a raised whitish line extending from 

 under the eye to the insertion of the fore leg, and we never fail to find a raised 

 cutaneous fold or line of white or yellowish extending from the orbit to the hind 

 part of the body ; this together with the spots on the sides and back, form the 

 proper characteristics of this species, yet I have one before me that has but five 

 spots on the back, three on one side and two on the other with none on the sides. 

 The lower part of the sides of this near the groin are bluish. This species has 

 a vocal vesicle on the side of each jaw like the R. esculenta. 



I have restored to this speeies its original name of pipiens. Kalm has some 

 how or other the credit of giving to it the name of halecina, upon what authority 

 I cannot find, neither can I see how the name fits. The word halec in Latin 

 signified a kind of sauce apparently like that we now call anchovy sauce. 

 Afterwards it came to mean any kind of small and cheap fish, by no means how- 

 ever either herring or shad, both of which must have been unknown to the 

 Romans before the conquest of Gaul. How the name was taken from this species 

 and given to the bull frog it would be difficult to discover. No one who knew 

 any thing of the two animals, would confound the soft peeping sound of a 

 chicken with the loud roaring of a bull. 



R. palustris. R. palustris L. C, 1. c. p. 282. Eadem Holbrook 1. c. p. 95. 

 R. pardalis Harlan. Silliman's Journal x. p. 60. 



The hind part of the thighs is always yellow spotted with black. It is re- 

 markable for its strong and disagreeable odor. Much resembles the preceding, 

 but is distinguished at once by the two raised lines on the back being wanting; 

 these never fail in the R. pipiens. It sometimes has the black spots on the top 

 of the back connected into two longitudinal bands. 



R. clamator. R clamata Daudin 1. c. p. 54. R. clamitans Merrem. p. 176. 



Above smooth, with a few scattered warts, dark olive, cinereous or dark green, 

 with a few irregular black spots, and frequently with a darker line extending 

 from the orbits to the insertion of the hind legs. Beneath smooth white, more 

 or less varied with du3ky. Upper eyelid smooth, tympan brown, vomerian teeth 

 small, the two clusters nearly joined together. Arms and legs barred with dusky, 

 fingers a little dilated at the tips, the first equal to or longer than the second ana 



