438 Frogs of the Okefinokee Swamp 



west edge of the lake where the Rana virgatipes are normally common had 

 the sphagnum just starting and below the top of the water. Pipeworts 

 (Eriocaulon) were just starting. Water lily leaves were yet below the water. 

 Golden club (Orontiuni aquaticum) was in bloom but we saw no adult frogs in 

 this stretch. Some little frogs just ahead of me were continually disappearing. 

 They were probably transformed R. virgatipes but of this I could not be sure." 



In 1929 in June we planned a trip to Lakehurst, but a mishap befell us. 

 Of the improvised trip June 8, 1929, we have these journal notes. 



"Needed a male and a female R. virgatipes for photographs. Boarded a 

 train at Ridgewood for Lakehurst and without collecting kit or clothes. It 

 rained until midaf ternoon ; with every handicap we waded the edge of the 

 lake at Lakehurst with no success. The same result along the west point of 

 land extending into the lake. The vegetation mats have not reached the sur- 

 face to any appreciable degree. Mr. Shinn and his boys have a cottage at the 

 base of the point. They informed us that locally the frogs have long been 

 called 'carpenter frogs.' Some new visitors beside the lake can hardly sleep 

 at night when the species is in full chorus. Mr. Shinn sent the boys out in a 

 canoe to get some on the mats in midlake and along the east side. We went to 

 Emlie's pond. When we returned the boys had 4 males and i female and 

 one recently transformed frog. Several they had thrown back. They ap- 

 proached the Hly pads and with a scoop of a long handled dip net caught the 

 frogs. The lily pad and mid-lake habits suggest Ra7ia septentrionalis of the 

 Adirondack Mts. and the North." 



Outside or inside the swamp. Rana virgatipes in 192 1 we missed in the 

 center of the swamp though one informant claims he has heard them on the 

 south side of Billy's Island. They are not in the center of the swamp in our 

 experience. We found them on the prairies near Chesser Island and between 

 it and the mainland. Also we recorded them from Blackjack Island. This 

 places them in the very southern and eastern part of the swamp, a queer dis- 

 tribution as puzzling as that of the plant Bejaria (Elliottia) racemosa. 



FIRST APPEARANCE 



In the Okefinokee swamp some of the residents to whose attention we 

 called this frog, said it started croaking in early spring if rainy weather be at 

 hand. They probably appear by mid- April if not before. 



VOICE 



According to Davis (1907, p. 50) "Rana virgatipes may be called the Car- 

 penter Frog, for its note sounds much like the blow of a hammer on a board. 

 It is a quickly uttered chuck-up, chuck-up, and the frog usually hammers three 

 or four times. For a time I was not sure of the singer, but some captive indi- 

 viduals under the influence of good living have uttered this call-note in my 

 room while I sat by," 



In 1907 Fowler writes (1905, pp. 662, 663; 1906, (1907) pp. 123, 124, 125): 

 "The individuals obtained by Cope and Stone did not make any noises, but 

 when we discovered ours, the males were in full cry, which would seem to indi- 



