54 



Two varieties, or subspecies, of this frog are recognized, as follows : 



Skin of back neai'ly smooth ; hind foot from metatarsal tubercles^ 

 longer than half the length of head and body. gryllus. 



Skin of back considerably tuberculated Hind foot, from the meta- 

 tarsel tubercles, shorter than one-half the length of head and body, 



crepitans. 



The habitat of this species extends from New York to Florida, and 

 west to Nebraska and Texas. The variety gryllus is, for the most part. 

 Southern in its range, while crepitans is more Northern. In Indiana the 

 crepitans is found everywhere. The variety gryllus is in the National 

 Museum from Mt. Carmel, on the Wabash, and I have specimens taken 

 at Lake Maxinkuckee which correspond well to the descriptions of that 

 variety. 



This little frog is one of our commonest batrachians. During the sum- 

 mer season it may be seen in numbers along all of our streams. I doubt if 

 it is often seen about the ponds or pools far from running water. It is 

 not thoroughly aquatic, but delights to spend its time amid the vegeta- 

 tion about the border of the water. When alarmed it will leap into the 

 water, but it often appears to become alarmed at its rashness and hastens 

 to reach the land again. When followed up, however, it will go to the 

 bottom and seek to conceal itself for awhile. Though belonging to the 

 " tree-frogs" it never ascends trees, and probably climbs only the shorter 

 grasses and water plants. It is a cheerful little creature, and on warm 

 days may constantly be heard executing its noisy song. This resembles 

 closely the striking together rapidly of two pebbles, and often, when 

 their singing has been interrupted by the passer-by, it may be started 

 again by clicking two stones sharply together. 



This little chatterer appears very early in the spring, and it is my ob- 

 servation that it is to be found at all times during the summer. Numer- 

 ous specimens were found at Irvington on the 8th of March. The eggs 

 are probably laid about this time, although I do not know anything about 

 them. On the 16th of August I found numerous specimens of the tad- 

 poles of this species. They were found hiding in the vegetation at the 

 bottom of a small stream. They were in very different stages of devel- 

 opment, some with both the fore and the hind legs visible, others with 

 only short hind legs. The arrangement of the horny denticles about the 

 mouth of the larvse I found to be different from that of specimens of 

 Chorophilus triseriatus. In both species there are two rows of horny den- 

 ticles on the upper lip. On the lower lip, there are in the Chorophilus 

 three rows of denticles, but in Acris only two. Furthermore, in Choro- 

 philus the denticles are finely serrated at their tips ; in Acris this is not 

 the case. The teeth of the latter genus are less numerous than in the 

 former. The transformations occurred about September 1. 



Dr. Holbrook states that the Cricket frog feeds on various kinds of 



