Plate I. Croaking Males 

 i. Common spadefoot (xj) 

 i. Cricket frog (xi). 3 

 Southern bullfrog (xl). 4 

 Northern gopher frog (x|) 



Voice. Early travellers 

 often commented on the frog 

 music of our country. Wit- 

 ness the following: 



"There be also store of 

 frogs, which in the spring 

 time will chirp, and whistle 

 like birds; there be also 

 toads, that will creep to the 

 top of trees, and sit there 

 croaking, to the wonderment 

 of strangers!" 



"To the stranger walking 

 for the first time in these 

 woods during the summer, 

 this appears the land of en- 

 chantment: he hears a thou- 

 sand noises, without being 

 able to discern from whence 

 or from what animal they 

 proceed, but which are, in 

 fact, the discordant notes of 

 five different species of frogs !" 



"Previous to my coming to 

 this country, I recollect read- 

 ing the foregoing passages, 

 the first in a history of New 

 England, published in Lon- 

 don, in the year 1671 ; and 

 the other in a similar produc- 

 tion of a later date. 



"Prepared as I was to hear 

 something extraordinary from 

 these animals, I confess the 

 first frog concert I heard in 

 America was so much beyond 

 anything I could conceive of 

 the powers of these musicians, 

 that I was truly astonished. This performance was a/ fresco, and took 

 place on the night of the 18th instant (Apr. 18, 1794, Philadelphia), in 



