Hyla Jemoralis 277 



gray as any Hyla versicolor I ever saw. The spot in middle of back showed 

 beautifully, also spot between the eyes. This female I took out to look at it. 

 It leaped away on to gray sand. Has a hard time seeing it, it matched the 

 gray sand so well. In one minute since its capture it had darkened consider- 

 ably. In denser cover 9 inches high with small saw palmetto, Vaccinium 

 myrsinites, calico bush, Gaylussacia frondosa, etc., found a half grown H. 

 femoralis. It was green on its back (very suggestive in size, color and appear- 

 ance or marks of Hyla squirella, which strangely enough we don't get here). 

 A little later lost another Hyla femoralis in same place as the green one. 

 Anent the half grown green specimen on May 21 we have the note: "In the 

 compartment of Hyla jemoralis, most of the specimens, in fact all (including 

 one little half grown one green when captured) are Vandyke brown or moss 

 brown." "A captive female in jar June 19 is pale hght mouse gray on back 

 with no markings revealed." On July 18, Harper makes the note: ^' Hyla 

 femoralis on green palmetto frond in sun in p.b. about 4:00 p. m., bleached 

 out, much as at night; bending the neck back, to rival Chorophilus.'^ 



General habits. In 192 1 we acquired the following notes on their daytime, 

 non-breeding habits and resting. 



On April 23, the boys found two on the rail fence at 2 :3o p. m. The next 

 day they brought three more from the same fence. On April 26, the boys 

 found some more Hyla femoralis in the rain barrels along the railroad and 

 near the company's wood pile. "In a pine near camp about 15 or 20 feet up 

 on the end fork of large branch is a Hyla femoralis male. It doubtless is the 

 one we have heard ever since we have been here." On April 27 the boys 

 brought in another male from the rain barrels along the railroad. The rain 

 barrels too are used in putting out the trees when they start to burn. 



VOICE 



LeConte, 1855, seems to be the first to note that it differed from H. 

 squirella in voice. No one since has remarked about its voice until Deckert 

 (1915, pp. 3, 4) writes that "The noise resulting from the calls of the males on 

 these occasions, is deafening. This call cannot be reproduced on paper, being 

 a rapid succession of harsh, rattling notes, higher in pitch than the call of H. 

 squirella, and kept up all night. During the dry season this tree toad occasion- 

 ally calls from the tops of the pine trees, one answering the other." 



In 192 1 the first general calling of Hyla femoralis came May 14. Then the 

 author "Went to Billy's Lake Landing. Worked eastward. Heard plenty of 

 Hyla femoralis in trees. They are approaching or are on the edge of cypress 

 ponds. Some are yet high in the trees. They are calling at intervals all over 

 the piney woods, particularly near the edges of cypress bays. One call, an 

 interval, one very faint call, interval. ..." 



On May 16 "When a threatening storm passed over Hyla femoralis from 

 the trees were almost in chorus. Around cypress ponds several calling. One 

 was on a projecting piece of pine bark on the tree and within reach, about six 

 feet from the ground. Harper saw it croak. Afterwards the throat pulsated 

 all the time." Harper notes that it "let me come up in plain sight, within a 



