4 1 6 Frogs of the Okefinokee Swamp 



"y . When captured they sometimes utter a cry of distress quite different 

 from their ordinary croaking notes, and I have often seen a bullfrog 

 open his mouth and scream for even a minute, like a child in distress. 



"8. When they give their note it is always produced by inflating the 

 throat pouch and suddenly expelling the air, whereas in R. halecina 

 there is a pouch near the angle of the jaws, on either side. 



"g. They are all tinged, more or less, with yellowish-green on the chin, 

 which soon shades towards the throat and breast, and on the belly 

 is white, more or less, in many subjects most beautifully so. 



There is thus an analogy in their life history, and in their external confor- 

 mation that at once forms them into a group by themselves, and makes a 

 marked section. I am not aware, however, that there is any anatomical 

 difference sufficient to make a genus." 



In 1889 Cope (pp. 396, 397) graphically makes this species a central form 

 from which four lines of North American Ranas radiate. "Sometimes the 

 vomerine teeth in Rana temporaria pretiosa are not appreciably more pos- 

 terior in position than in Rana septentrionalis, in which case the species 

 approach each other very closely. The Rana septentrionalis violates the 

 characters which distinguish the R. clamata and R. caiesheiana from each 

 other, and would afford a complete connection between them were it not 

 for its inferior size; but even this point does not invariably hold good, as a 

 few specimens of R. clamata do not exceed it in dimensions." 



"These series (four radiate lines above) are not probably genetic, as some 

 of the species have been most likely derived from the Old World. The R. 

 septentrionalis, however, may be very probably ancestral to the forms of the 

 Catesbeiana series, and perhaps of others." 



"The variations of the Rana septentrionalis are greater than those of any 

 other North American species of the genus. There is, however, no coinci- 

 dence between them, so that they cannot be regarded as indicating subspecies. 

 The tympanic disc varies greatly in size, the males having it larger than the 

 eye, and the females smaller than the eye. In this respect the species displays 

 its near affinity to the R. clamata and R. catesbeiana. Some specimens have 

 a dorsolateral dermal glandular ridge, and others have none, such difference 

 being exhibited by specimens from the same locality. The spotting of the 

 dorsal surface varies very much. In some specimens the spots are not closely 

 placed; in others they leave only narrow fines of the lighter ground color 

 between them." 



Taking all its characters together, this species occupies a position inter- 

 mediate "between nearly all the North American species of the genus, and 

 from some such form it might be supposed that all the Ranae of the northern 

 hemisphere have been derived." (Pp. 418, 419). 



Boulenger (1920, p. 425) later comments: "I cannot agree with Cope . . .; 

 nor do I think him justified in adding that 'from such a form it might be 

 supposed that all the Rana of the northern hemisphere have been derived,' 

 a statement I would rather apply to Rana catesbeiana and Rana grylio, re- 

 garding R. septentrionalis as connecting R. catesbeiana with R. clatnitans." 



