AMPHIBIANS 



and about three weeks from the date when the eggs are laid 

 their hind legs are beginning to show, and in seven weeks the 

 little frogs, now about half an inch long, are ready to leave 

 the water. 



Size. — 2 inches, but half -grown ones about an inch long 

 are common. 



Range. — Throughout eastern North America, west to 



Kansas. 



Fig. 302. — Spring peeper, Ilyla cnicifer, with vocal 

 sac inflated. 



Spring peeper, Hyla cnicifer (formerly H. pickeringi). — 



The best field marks of the spring peeper are its small size, 

 and the dark multiplication sign on its back (PI. XXI). Its 

 general color varies from light fawn to dark brown. . The 

 whole body is delicately translucent and the under parts 

 are white, washed with yellow, though in the male the throat 

 is brown. 



Habits, habitat. — Spring peepers cling to dead grass- 

 blades by the pond-side uttering their shrill peeping, one of the 

 earliest calls of spring in the ponds and marshes. They begin 

 to sing in March, when the spotted salamander, Amby stoma 

 mactilatum, is laying its eggs, and they continue till the end ■ 

 of their own breeding season, often late in May. After that 

 they 'scatter through swamps and meadows and are only 

 occasionally seen. 



Food. — They eat worms and small insects, their diet being 

 similar to that of other frogs but simpler. 



Breeding habits. — Pond shallows and wet hillocks of grass 

 about the margins are favorite breeding places. There on 

 warm evenings in early May their high-pitched, clear chorus 



375 



