Hyla cinerea 253 



variation in colour pattern; that is, the hght bands on the legs may be nar- 

 rowed or obsolete, the light band on the side may extend no farther than half- 

 way instead of quite to the posterior end of the body, and the dark bands 

 bordering the light ones may be distinct or wholly lacking. . . . This Hyla 

 sometimes has a few small orange, black-rimmed spots on the back." (Dicker- 

 son, 1906, p. 127). 



There is a great variation in color. In general at night yellowish green or 

 light greens are prevalent. During the day I have noticed pairs where the 

 male, the more exposed, was olive green or slaty and the less exposed female 

 was a hghter green than the male. Certainly the more exposed frogs of the 

 daytime are not always darker. The very palest Hyla cinerea I ever saw was 

 on the exposed edge of a cypress head, at mid-day. 



The same conditions do not always produce the same coloration. In one 

 case we had many Hyla cinerea in a botany drum. All were light green except 

 three, one of which was almost black, another olive green, a dark green, and 

 the third yellowish green. 



Variation in color. In 1825 LeConte (p. 279) wrote 'The description of 

 this animal should be corrected by saying, that the lateral line, from which the 

 name is derived, is most commonly silvery, in some few instances yellow." 



In 1856 Hallowell (pp. 307, 308) held that "in lateralis {viridis Hollb.) the 

 lateral stripe extends as far as the anus, and there is a white band running the 

 whole length of the tibia, both anteriorly and posteriorly. The anterior band 

 is absent in semifasciataJ^ Hallowell's H. semifasciata was supposedly larger 

 than the true H. cmerm and had the lateral band ending half way along the side. 



In 1890 and 1892, H. Garman recognized these two varieties as Hyla 

 cinerea cinerea and Hyla cinerea semifasciata. In 1899 G. S. Miller, Jr., 

 examined the Hyla cinerea material from the vicinity of Washington and 

 recognized in addition to the cinerea cinerea and cinerea semifasciata a new 

 frog Hyla evittata "like Hyla cinerea (Daudin) but with broader, deeper 

 muzzle and normally unstriped body and legs." "As to the constancy of the 

 color differences between the two forms" (cinerea and evittata) he writes: 



"I have handled about two dozen living and freshly killed specimens of 

 Hyla evittata, and have probably seen nearly as many more at a distance of 

 only a few feet. Among these one had a faintly developed stripe at the angle 

 of the jaw. Of the twenty-two alcoholic specimens collected by Mr. Hay and 

 now in the National Museum, eight have traces of the body stripe, which, 

 however, in no instance is margined with black, or as sharply defined as those 

 southern specimens in which the stripe is shortened and narrowed. Of sixty- 

 one specimens of Hyla cinerea (seven received alive from H. H. and C. S. 

 Brimley taken at Bay St. Louis, Miss., and the others preserved in alcohol 

 in the U. S. National Museum) there is considerable variation in the leg 

 stripes, though varying in length and breadth, is conspicuously developed, 

 definite in outline, and usually margined with black. In the two abnormal 

 individuals (one from Bay St. Louis, Miss., the other from New Orleans, 

 La.) the leg stripes are absent, and the body stripes reduced to mere traces 

 near the angle of the jaw. When forwarding the unstriped specimen from 



