FIELD BOOK OF PONDS AND STREAMS 



westward to Texas, Kansas, and the Northwest. It has not 

 been reported north of southern New York and Connecticut. 



Fig. 304. — Swamp cricket frog, Pseudacris tri- 

 seriata. ' 



Swamp cricket frog, Pseudacris triseriata. — The fullgrown 

 swamp cricket frog is about one inch long, ashy brown, vary- 

 ing from light to dark, with three parallel dark stripes which 

 run the length of its back (Fig. 304). The middle one extends 

 along the midline of the back and often forks at tha end. 

 There is a distinct dark spot on each eyelid. The under 

 parts are yellowish white. Like the cricket frog this is a 

 tree frog whose toe pads are so small that they are of little \ 

 help in climbing. 



Habits. — These frogs live in wet marshes through the sum- ' 

 mer, foraging upon insects, like the cricket frog. 



Breeding habits. — 'While searching for Amby stoma jeffer- 

 sonianum, Wright and Allen {Chorophilus triseriatiis. Bib- 

 liography, p. 423) found swamp cricket frogs breeding in 

 ponds in the outskirts of Buffalo about the first of April. The 

 frogs which they observed were shy and easily silenced but 

 the captured ones in their bags and pockets soon began to chirp 

 and started up the chorus again. The egg masses containing 

 from a couple of dozen to 100 eggs are attached to twigs or 

 grass stems. 



Range. — Locally abundant in early spring, from Oswego, 

 New York, along Lake Ontario to Utah. 



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