Pseudacris ocularis 213 



"This is the smallest of North American Salientia and was found to be quite 

 numerous in a dried-up ditch with black muck bottom at Little River, Feb. 

 23. A dozen specimens were taken and liberated later on at 19th Street, 

 Miami, in a small hammock. It is the only member of the genus observed 

 here so far." So, too, G. S. Miller Jr. and C. R. Aschemeier took adult males 

 (U.S.N.M. 71034-41) at Gainesville, Florida, April 3, 1926, and 0. C. Van 

 Hyning has taken it from February onward at the same place. 



GENERAL HABITS 



Metachrosis. On May 21, 192 1, "It is curious that I put all sixteen frogs 

 in a pan and put it in the desk beside two books. All those on the north side 

 were of the reddish brown phase. Those on the south side of a gray phase. 

 The first were beside the deeper reddish binding of Jordan — Evermann's 

 Fishes of North America and the gray ones near Smith's Fishes of N. C., redd- 

 ish lighter manuscript holders or covers." On the evening of May 21, 192 1, 

 during a great chorus of this species they impressed us as much faded out at 

 night. 



Variation in color. Others have recorded individuals: chestnut brown, 

 bronzed (Holbrook) ; brown, bronze or silvery grey (LeConte) ; dark chestnut 

 (Cope); yellow, reddish brown, chestnut (Deckert); green (Weber). 



In 191 2 we secured the following colors: gray, greenish, light yellowish 

 olive, dull citrine, chestnut bay. In 192 1 we took individuals: brown, reddish 

 brown, gray, amber brown, hazel, tawny, buckthorn brown, light grayish 

 olive, light oUve gray, deep olive gray, cinnamon. 



On May 17 we had diverse colorings in a lot of sixteen in one pan. "Some 

 were tawny, hazel or amber brown on upper surfaces, others buckthorn 

 brown. One is light grayish olive or light olive gray; another deep olive gray. 

 The stripe on the upper jaw was almost cream, chalcedony yellow or glass 

 green. Belly chamois, cream buff, or calomel buff. Iris, cinnamon." 



General habits. Holbrook, its describer (1842, p. 138) says this species "is 

 closely allied to the Hylodes grijllus in its habits, choosing the same damp 

 places for its abode, . . . ." Under this species he notes "The members of this 

 genus, 1 ke those of the last, are all diurnal in their habits, or seek their food 

 by daylight. They all delight in the heat of the sun, and the brighter its rays, 

 the more merry and noisy are they." 



In 192 1 we first met them in numbers May 16 on Billy's Island "In the 

 grassy pipewort cover they, when disturbed, could jump i-i3^ feet away 

 like an .4cm. The Pseudacris ocularis would jump into small bushes.- Were 

 very hard to catch. Of six I saw I caught only two. One I thought I had 

 killed. His tongue hung out yet he jumped. The jump apparently remains 

 to the last. The adult Acris will leap into the bushes 3^-i foot high. Are 

 these last year's Acris? This is only a guess, a possibihty." We soon satisfied 

 ourselves they were different. On May 21 we "found Pseudacris ocularis 

 hopping over water like a young bullfrog, usually over a dense mat of grass 

 in water." 



