34© Frogs of the Okefinokee Simmp 



to find pairs and eggs in the pond the following day and evening. We dis- 

 covered neither but I am now sure the eggs found the following day were some 

 of the Rana aesopus eggs and not solely R. sphenocephala as I then pronounced 

 them. This fact alone showed how closely this species resembles the southern 

 meadow frog in this regard. 



The preceding record (July 17, 192 1) was of frogs from an island in the 

 edge of the swamp where they do not normally live in gopher turtle burrows. 

 The second experience came August 17, 1922, on the Trail Ridge (oak ridge) 

 near Hilliard, Fla. After an excessive rainy period we were detouring on the 

 Dixie Highway when Mr. Harper heard spadefoots in some shallow pine barren 

 ponds. Later in the afternoon before and after 5 :oo p.m. I thought I heard 

 frogs on the higher open places in the pine forests. We suspected they were 

 gopher frogs and queried "Are they on the ground or at the gopher turtle 

 burrows or moving to their breeding places?" We never found one and one of 

 the party thought it a ventriloquial effect from a distant cypress pond. When 

 darkness came on this pond was suddenly resonant with gopher frog calls in 

 chorus. These chose similar perches to those described for 192 1. One was at 

 the base of a stump and above the water. Another was in the notch of a 

 floating log. A third at the base of a cypress. A fourth was beside a stump 

 and mostly sunk in the water. A fifth was at the edge of a small subsiding 

 pine. With all four of us searching we saw only one croak and all the rest 

 never responded when we were near. Several times Mr. Harper focussed on 

 males but we never secured the desired reaction. They were very shy. This 

 evening they frequented the edges of the pond where stumps, logs, and debris 

 were but were thickest in grassy and sedgy areas. These frogs called all night. 

 The chorus stopped at daybreak. Occasionally until 9:00 or 10:00 a.m. of 

 June 18 they would break out in a choral call, then subsided for a long period. 



The vocal vesicles Shufeldt pronounces most unusual (191 7, p. 154), but 

 we doubt whether he or any writer who had captive specimens has ever seen 

 them at their maximum. This is possible at night in the field. In this regard 

 it is an exaggerated R. pi piens or R. sphenocephala with the vocal sac extending 

 almost to the groin. It constitutes the most striking development in vocal 

 sacs I have seen in North American Safientia. 



"The croaking is a very remarkable performance. A lateral pouch is in- 

 flated on each side of the neck and keeps swelling posteriorly until it extends 

 halfway down the side of the body, attaining a size nearly equal to that of the 

 frog's head. The creature's form is then strongly suggestive of a bat-fish 

 {Cgcocephalus lespeitilio). The note — and likewise the inflation — lasts for a 

 second or so." It is a deep, hollow roll, somewhat intermediate between a 

 snore and a groan: yawhhhhh, yawhhhhh. At the start the intervals between 

 notes may range from ten seconds to nearly half a minute, but as the frog 

 warms to the performance, a croak may be given every two or three seconds. 

 The sound will probably carry a quarter of a mile." (F. Harper.) In 1922 

 both Mr. Harper and three more of us noticed the call might extend consider- 

 ably over a second's time. 



