Hyla squirella 313 



LeConte (1825, p. 39) writes of it at length: "The figure of this species in 

 Daudin is very different from any specimen that I have ever seen, both in 

 colour and in marks ; I do not deny but that it may have been fond of a green 

 colour, as he represents it, and marked in the same manner; but the same error 

 occurring in his delineation of the next species, I am incHned to think that it 

 has been coloured from report and description, rather than from the animal 

 itself; indeed, whatever the colour may be, it can scarcely remain unchanged 

 for six months, in a preserved specimen; all that I have ever attempted to 

 preserve, lost their colour in less than two months. There are three principal 

 varieties of this species: 



"a. Above cinereous, with a straight, or curved or angular bar between 

 the eyes; hack with a few spots of dusky, sometimes confluent, and form- 

 ing different figures of irregular shapes; and sometimes uniting into a 

 line on each side of the body, of greater or lesser length. 



'*b. Above cinereous, irregularly spotted with darker; the line between 

 the eyes broken into two or more spots. 



"y. Above entirely brown, with spots, exterior part of thighs not 

 yellow. 



"In all these, the dark band on the head, and the white line on the hps, 

 are the only marks which remain constant; in one variety, even the yellow 

 colour on the thighs vanishes; there are hardly any two individuals alike, and 

 so different are they from one another, that a person who had not observed 

 them accurately for a length of time, would be led to think, that there were 

 almost as many species as individuals." 



Holbrook (1842, p. 124) remarks that "The colours of this animal are even 

 more changeable than in any species with which I am acquainted. I have seen 

 it pass in a few moments from a light green, unspotted and as intense almost 

 as that of Hyla lateralis, to ash-colour, and to a dull brown with darker spots; 

 the spots also at times taking on different tints from the general surface. 

 The markings, too, vary exceedingly in different individuals, the white line 

 on the upper hp and the band between the orbits alone are constant." 



LeConte (1855, p. 429) again writes of it as follows: "Color varying at the 

 will of the animal from green to brown of different degrees of intensity, 

 spotted and speckled irregularly with darker and dusky and sometimes with 

 paler, often however of a uniform color. A darker line extends from the 

 nostrils to the eyes and through them to the insertion of the arm (this is some- 

 times evanescent) ; beneath this darker fine extends a white one which reaches 

 nearly to the groin; sometimes interrupted or broken into three or four parts. 

 The dark line on the vertex between the eyes never fails entirely, although it 

 is sometimes reduced to a rather large spot on each eyelid." 



Dickerson (1906, pp. 149, 150) remarks this wonderful change of colour 

 the "scrapper" shows. "Of all the tree frogs of North America, this one has 

 perhaps the greatest power for rapid colour changes, and during these changes 

 presents the greatest variety of colours and shades of colour. At any given 

 moment, Hyla squirella may wear any one of the following costumes: Un- 

 spotted dark chocolate brown or dark brownish olive; light purplish brown 



