3 94 GA ^^E- [Vol. V 1 1 1 . 



and the food is scarce, the frogs bury themselves in holes 

 in the muddy banks of shallow ponds or sluggish streams 

 and remain thus excluded from light, air and food, and are 

 but slightly protected from the cold, for from four to five 

 months of the year. On warm, sunny days in March or 

 April they creep out of their holes into the water. Cleansed 

 of the winter's mud, they are seen to be arrayed in holiday 

 attire. The color of teinporaria is greenish to reddish 

 brown with sharply defined black spots; the throat, breast 

 and under surface of the legs are of many hues of red, 

 green and white. The male teinporaria starts out on his 

 courting tour immediately. He wanders away from his 

 winter quarters, and springs and croaks with great persist- 

 ency until he meets his mate. The act of copulation and 

 the spawning having been completed, they forsake ponds 

 and swamps for dry meadows in search of food. This fact 

 makes it difficult to capture them during the summer months. 

 After spending about two months on dry ground they 

 gradually return to their winter haunts, that is, to moist 

 land, the males earlier than the females. It is difficult to 

 obtain males for investigation in June and July; in August 

 it is less difficult to get males, but the females are rarer 

 than in the preceding months. In September specimens of 

 both sexes are numerous. 



R. esculenta does not copulate until May. They, too, don a 

 holiday attire for the occasion; their coats are bright green 

 with clearly defined black spots, and the breast and lower 

 surface of the legs are speckled with a black and creamy 

 white. They remain on the banks of the swamps and ponds 

 during the summer. In the late fall they assume their bright 

 colors for the second time, an indication of the fact mentioned 

 by Ploetz that this species is also found in North Africa where 

 copulation occurs at the beginning of the rainy winter period, 

 the dry summers of the south taking the place of our winter 

 sleep and hunger period. 



There are thus two chief points of difference in the external 

 life of the two species, (i) the time of copulation, (2) the 

 habitation of moist places by esculenta during the entire year. 



