93 



RANA PALUSTRIS.— Lecon^e. 



Plate XIV. 



Characters. Body pale brown above, with two longitudinal rows of square 

 spots of a dark brown colour on the back and on each flank; yellowish-white 

 beneath; posterior half of the thighs bright yellow, mottled with black. 



Stnontmes. Rana palustris, Leconte, Ann. Lye. N. Y., vol. i. p. 282. 

 Rana pardalis, Harlan, Silliman's Journal, vol. x. p. 50. 

 Pickerel Frog, Vidgo. 



Description. The Rana palustris is a slender and delicately formed animal. 

 The head is short and rather obtuse, with a dark brown spot on the top of each 

 orbit, and another near the snout: an indistinct dark line extends from the nostrils 

 to the orbit of the eye. The upper jaw is yellowish white, spotted with black; 

 the lower white, spotted in like manner. The nostrils are nearly midway between 

 the orbit and snout; a little nearest the latter. The eyes are large and prominent; 

 the pupil black, with the iris of a golden colour: the tympanum is evident, though 

 smaller than in the R. halecina; its colour is bronze, with a spot of a darker shade 

 in the middle. A yellow line begins at the eye, and runs below the tympanum to 

 the base of the anterior extremities. The superior surface of the body is pale 

 brown, ahnost covered by oblong square spots of very dark brown, arranged 

 symmetrically in two lines along the back: we sometimes find two of these squares 

 confluent. A bright yellow, but not raised, longitudinal line begins behind each 

 orbit, and extends to the posterior extremity of the body; below this line, on each 

 flank, are two other rows of square brown spots, the superior row beginning on a 

 level with and behind the tympanum; the inferior row is less regular, frequently 



