FOREWORD 



In 1 9 14 we wrote as an introduction to a similar work for Ithaca, N. Y., 

 the following paragraphs : 



"Notwithstanding the extensive use of our American Anura for anatomical 

 and embryological purposes, comparatively little attention has been given to 

 the collection of definite data bearing upon the breeding habits and larvae of 

 this group. In this connection, Boulenger (1897), in the preface to his work 

 upon 'The Tailless Batrachians of Europe', observes: 



*I would also express a hope that a Uttle book of this kind . . . may 

 have the effect of stimulating interest in a subject that has been too much 

 neglected, and in the cultivation of which new workers will find much to repay 

 their efforts, especially if applied in other regions of the globe, which, though 

 richer in Batrachians, have as yet yielded Httle or nothing to our knowledge 

 of the life-histories.' 



"Dr. Gill (1898), in his review of the work just mentioned, remarks that 

 he hopes this monograph* 'may serve as a model for other lands, and not 

 least for the United States. . . . Every sojourner in the country must have 

 noticed the masses of transparent jelly-like spheres in the water, but none in 

 the United States could refer such masses with certainty to the parent species.' 

 To a local study of these very phases of Anuran hfe, my investigations for the 

 past seven or eight years have been directed." 



Since 1914 we have continued these studies from Ithaca to California. 

 With these studies of the southeast, Storer's excellent accounts of the Pacific 

 coast forms and Strecker's long continued notes on Texas species, the Hfe 

 histories of most of the Salientia of North America are now outlined. Some 

 remain untouched and many details need to be filled in the outhnes at hand. 



*The material upon which this report is based is from two sources: the personal material 

 collected in Okefinokee Swamp from 1909-1922; and the United States National Museum 

 collection of the Okefinokee species herein considered. Before the completion of this manu- 

 script Mrs. Wright and I examined also all of the U. S. National Museum frogs of North 

 America north of the Mexican line. This material furnished comparative notes on the 

 following topics: the range; structural differences between sexes; least and greatest breeding 

 sizes; transformation data and sizes; measurements of frogs from transformation to largest 

 adults for rate of growth; first appearance and autumnal disappearance dates; and other 

 incidental data. Additional information came from the U. S. National Museum's un- 

 identified and uncatalogued tadpoles and transformation stages which the present author 

 is examining from time to time. To Dr. Leonhard Stejneger, Dr. Remington Kellogg, and 

 Miss Doris Cochran we owe countless kindnesses. 



To Doubleday, Doran & Co. we are indebted for permission to use excerpts from Miss 

 M. C. Dickerson's useful work, The Frog Book. 



The investigation upon which this work is based was supported in 1921 and 1922 by a 

 grant from the Heckscher Foundation for the Advancement of Research, established at 

 Cornell University by August Heckscher. 



