a large swamp, where there were at least ten thousand performers; and 

 I really believe not two exactly in the same pitch, if the octave can 

 possibly admit of so many divisions or shades of semitones. An 

 hibernian musician, who, like myself, was present for the first time 

 at this concert of antimusic, exclaimed, 'Begorrah, but they stop out 

 of tune to a nicety* 



"I have been since informed by an amateur, who resided many 

 years in this country, and made this species of music his peculiar 

 study that on these occasions the treble is performed by the tree- 

 frogs, the smallest and most beautiful species; . . . their note is not 

 unlike the chirp of a cricket: the next in size are our counter tenors; 

 they have a note resembling the setting of a saw. A still larger species 

 sing tenor; and the under part is supported by the bull-frogs; which 

 are as large as a man's foot, and bellow out the bass in a tone as loud 

 and sonorous as that of the animal from which they take their name." 

 (Wm. Priest's Travels. London, 1802, pp. 48-50). 



In general, all male frogs have voices. Though some books state 

 that females are not croakers, nevertheless some can talk, croak or 

 scream. Any frog if seized or maddened may squeal or give a mercy 

 cry. This is done with open mouth. To croak a frog keeps his mouth 

 closed. In this way he can croak under water. Croaking consists in 

 pushing the air out of the lungs into the mouth and from there into 

 the sac or sacs by an opening on either side of the tongue or at the 

 angle of the mouth. Then the sacs deflate and the lungs refill. 



The calls of frogs have been likened to the noises of domestic 

 animals like the cat, dog, pea-fowl, lost chickens, young or hen 

 turkeys, ducks, bulls, pigs, lambs, goats; or have been compared to 

 the calling or snoring of humans. To some they call like various birds, 

 or like alligators, bats, etc. All kinds of mechanical or musical figures 

 have been employed to portray their calls. Each species has its dis- 

 tinctive breeding call but it may have several other calls in addition. 

 Usually the males begin calling before the females arrive at the ponds. 



Only the males have vocal sacs and these are diverse. The ribbed 

 frogs of our west coast have no vocal sacs. The narrow-mouthed 

 toads, spadefoots, cricket frogs, chorus frogs and tree frogs, have a 

 single median chin sac, round in outline when distended. The males 

 of these and the toads, with the exception of spadefoots, have dark 

 throats. Some tree frogs may have the side of the chin and throat 

 more inflated than its center. The toads have single throat sacs. In 

 several species the sac comes out from the lower throat like a sausage 

 case. Many of the true frogs have single throat sacs. Some have the 

 chin swollen out but not saclike. Others have a sac on either side of 

 the head between ear and shoulder as in our common leopard frog. 

 In one or two they appear like round marbles when distended. In 

 some frogs, like the gopher frogs, the whole side of the body swells 

 out when they croak. 



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