382 Frogs of (he Okefinokee Swamp 



FOOD 

 We have not examined the sixty of more individuals we have for food. I 

 know of no records in print. 



ENEMIES 

 On the basis of our 191 2 specimens we wrote: Out on the open prairies 

 the southern water snake {Natrix fasciatus fasciatus) is a bitter foe of the 

 southern bullfrog. One water snake had taken nearly two transformed frogs 

 of this species. Along the bonnet "runs" the moccasin and pied water snake 

 make life miserable for these frogs. Among the birds, the herons, and ibises 

 relish them. We have not examined our snakes, turtles or fish of the 192 1 

 and 1922 collections and are unable to determine which fed on southern 

 bullfrogs. 



AUTUMNAL DISAPPEARANCE 



If it be like a bullfrog in the South, it will spend four or five months in 

 hibernation. The months from November i -March i or later are doubtless 

 usually inactive for the species. In some cases they go into hibernation be- 

 fore November i or come out before or after March i as does Rana catesheiana. 

 For example, I have heard Rana catesheiana croaking in the first or second 

 week of February in Texas. 



AFFINITIES 



Indirectly Dr. Stejneger indicates the affinities of Rana grylio with Rana 

 catesheiana by the title of his paper "A New Species of Bullfrog from Florida 

 and the Gulf Coast." In diagnosis he pronounces it "Similar to Rana cates- 

 heiana, but with the fourth toe much shorter in proportion; the third toe, 

 measured from the inner metatarsal tubercle, being more than three and one- 

 half times the difference between the third and fourth toes." Further in his 

 description he says: 



"These differences in the relative length of the toes, being capable of the 

 most concise definition, have been utilized primarily for the characterization 

 of the new species, but there are numerous other features which prove it to 

 be very distinct from R. catesheiana. Thus, for instance, the snout is much 

 shorter and less high, so that the nostrils appear to be nearer the tip of the 

 mouth; the head is also narrower behind; the vomerine teeth are very close 

 together, with hardly any space between two patches; the tongue is much 

 less broader and thinner, with remarkably long and thin 'horns,' which are 

 very far apart; the color is apparently much darker brown, though there may 

 be R. catesheiana nearly as dark. Add to this the difference in voice and we 

 have clearly one of the most distinct species of frog in the United States." 



"The general habitus of R. grylio is that of Rana catesheiana, including the 

 large tympanum and the absence of a dorso-lateral glandular fold. It is also 

 a large frog, though whether it reaches the extreme size of R. catesheiana may 

 be doubted." 



In 19 14 R. F. Deckert holds it to be "a beautiful frog closely related to the 

 common bullfrog," while Miss Dickerson calls it a frog "really very different 

 in appearance from the common bullfrog, not resembling it in shape, proper- 



