from Spicer, Minn., northward to Rainy Lake, westward to Walhalla, 

 N. D., and then southward and eastward over a different route to 

 St. Paul, Minn. We saw many, many meadow frogs of all sizes with a 

 wide variation in their spotting, but found only intermediate forms 

 approaching in small part the typical R. p. kandiyohi. Some had few 

 spots, even down to 3 or 4 small ones on the back, others had many. 

 Some had long narrow spots, others round ones. In some, the spots 

 were very weakly outlined, so that they were much less conspicuous. 

 In some there were many dark specks and dashes between the spots. 

 In one large frog the bars on the tibia were entirely lacking, being 

 replaced by many light specks on a dark ground. Along a half mile of 

 a canal at one end of Green Lake at Spicer, Minn., we saw 200-300 

 small meadow frogs. This was in the center of Kandiyohi county. 



Several years ago, the living specimens of Weed were in a large 

 jar on the platform where one of the authors was presiding. They were 

 more or less continually croaking, and at that time we distinctly said 

 they were like Rana pipiens in voice. At the same time, we recalled 

 that rarely one would find in different lots of meadow frogs an un- 

 spotted one, Rana p. burnsi, or a mottled one, Rana p. kandiyohi, 

 and therefore we aligned ourselves more or less with the group which 

 questioned whether these two species or subspecies were worthy of 

 specific designation. Since our trip (Aug., 1930) to Kandiyohi County, 

 and other parts of Minnesota, we have to grant that a collector can- 

 not go out in other parts of the meadow frog's range and deliberately 

 find these color phases, as we did there. These two forms of Weed 

 become therefore increasingly interesting and worthy of considerable 

 study, and possibly one of the two may be as worthy of designation 

 as some other subspecies of frogs which most herpetologists accept. 

 A beautiful genetical problem for some Minnesota naturalist! 



"Two lines of investigation seem necessary if these frogs are to be 

 rescued from their present doubtful position and either placed in their 

 proper relation to other known forms or else eased back into synonymy. 

 In the first place, careful collecting should be done in the region where 

 these frogs are found, in order to find out their relation to other 

 species in habitat and numbers. This field work should be supple- 

 mented by controlled breeding experiments to determine the method 

 of inheritance of the color characteristics both in pure strains and in 

 hybrids. It is hoped that someone may be found who may have the 

 time and equipment to do this work. It is a problem which appears 

 simple on the surface but which would probably bring in many re- 

 lated questions and should have an important effect on the solution 

 of many problems of nomenclature." — (Alfred C. Weed. Turtox 

 News. June, 1930, Vol. 8, No. 6, pp. 43-44). 



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