12 FROGS. 



wood frog it does. The mink frog, like the bullfrog;, has no fold of 

 skin on either side of the back, one joint of the fourth toe is free of 

 web, and the male has the eardrum larger than the eye. This form 

 is small, the body being from 2 to 3 inches in length. The mink frog 

 is light olive with iiTegular spottings on the posterior back and sides, 

 with the hind legs spotted or banded. The carpenter frog has no 

 lateral folds, two joints of the fourth toe are free, and the animal is 

 brownish, with four yellowish or golden-browTi, longitudinal stripes 

 on the back. The under parts are yellowish white, with alternating 

 dark and light stripes on the hind legs. The gopher frog, unlike the 

 pickerel and leopard frogs, has a hind leg to heel length shorter than 

 the total length of the head and body and has its spotted dorsal skin 

 also quite warty. 



The spadefoots (PI. IV, fig. l),*^ with vertical pupils and sharp spades 

 on their hind feet, are almost large enough to be of value in the mar- 

 ket, but are uncertain in habits. The toads (PI. IV, iig. 2), with paro- 

 toid glands just back of the eye and with warty skins, may some day 

 serve as food, though a greater prejudice will have to be overcome 

 than in the case of the frogs. 



UNDESIRABLE SPECIES. 



The tree frogs, with no parotoid gland back of the eye and 

 with disks on the fingers and toes, comprise most of this class. 

 The males of these creatures can always be told from true-frog 

 males, because the area under the chin is always colored darker 

 or differently from the rest of the under parts, while true frogs 

 rarely have such a coloration. Rarely a male green frog or other 

 species may have a yellow or another color under the chin, but it 

 is not sharply indicated, as in the tree frogs, and does not appear 

 discolored. 



Common among these tree frogs are some with small disks and a 

 length of 1 inch or less; namely the cricket frog {Acris gryllus) with a 

 triangle between its eyes, webbed feet, and prominent, alternating, 

 dark and light longitudinal bands on the back of the thighs; and the 

 swamp cricket frog (Pseudacris) with webs small or absent and with 

 a more or less smooth skin. 



The tree frogs proper, with large disks, are several in number, of 

 which the peeper, the tree toad, the Carolina tree frog, the Florida 

 tree frog, the Pacific tree frog, and the southern tree frog are most 

 common. None reach much bej^ond 2 or, at the most, 2^ inches 

 in length. The bro\Miish and smooth peeper {Ilyld crucifer) (PI. 

 XXII, fig. 1 G) , is recognized by an X-shaped mark on its back. The 

 tree toad (H. versicolor) (PI. XI, fig. 3) of the eastern United States 

 is grayish brown or green; is rough of skin; and has a light spot below 

 the eye and a network of dark and yellow on the posterior part of the 

 thighs, while its relative of the southwest (H. arenicolor) has no net- 

 work on the thighs. The tree toad of the piney woods {H.femoralis) 

 has the posterior surface of the thighs, with round yellowish or 

 white spots, but not a reticulation or network. The Carolina tree 

 frog (H. cinerea) is grass-green above, with a straw-colored stripe 

 along the side of the head and body, while //. evittata of Maryland 

 and Virginia has no such stripe. The green of Anderson's tree 



a See footnote, p. 22. 



