INTRODUCTION. 



Notwithstanding the extensive use of our American Anura for ana- 

 tomical and embryological purposes, comparatively little attention has 

 been given to the collection of definite data bearing upon the breeding 

 habits and larvae of this group. In this connection, Boulenger (1897), 

 in the preface to his work upon "The Tailless Batrachians of Europe, " 

 observes : 



"I would also express a hope that a little book of this kind * * * may 

 have the effect of stimulating interest in a subject that has been too much 

 neglected, and in the cultivation of which new workers will find much to repay 

 their efforts, especially if applied in other regions of the globe, which, though 

 richer in Batrachians, have as yet yielded little or nothing to our knowledge 

 of the life-histories." 



Dr. Gill (1898), in his review of the work just mentioned, remarks 

 that he hopes this monograph* "may serve as a model for other lands, 

 and not least for the United States. * * * Every sojourner in the 

 country must have noticed the masses of transparent jelly-like spheres 

 in the water, but none in the United States could refer such masses 

 with certainty to the parent species." To a local study of these very 

 phases of Anitran life, my investigations for the past seven or eight 

 years have been directed. 



The notes here brought together are largely the outcome of eight 

 years' continuous and personal study in this region. In addition, the 

 records of the Department of Zoology of Cornell University, from 1900 

 to 1904, have been added, and acknowledgments for these as well as for 

 encouragement, assistance, and criticisms are gratefully extended to 

 Professors Burt G. Wilder, H. D. Reed and J. G. Needham. To Dr. 

 A. A. Allen, I am indebted for notes, for the use of several pertinent 

 photographs and assistance in taking other photographs, particularly 

 the flash-lights of croaking males. To Dr. Theodore N. Gill is due my 

 gratitude for his interest in this work from its inception to its comple- 

 tion, and in Boulenger's "Tailless Batrachians of Europe" and Dr. Gill's 

 review of it lie the model and original impetus of this study. Especial 

 thanks are due Professors S. H. Gage, T. L. Hankinson, C. O. Hough- 

 ton, C. R. Crosby and G. C. Embody. My greatest indebtedness is 

 due my wife, Anna Allen Wright, who has contributed most of the 

 illustrations and given this subject sufficient interest, work, and criti- 

 cism to be its junior author. Finally, the Carnegie Institution of 

 Washington assumed the publication of the book and has cooperated 

 with me in endeavoring to present it in a suitable form. 



* Science, N. S., vol. vm, No. 209, pp. 933, 937. 



