The Green Frog 



muddy bank of the little stream. Again we hear the sound 

 ahead of us, and surely something is moving toward the water* 

 Now we suspect that it may be a frog, and so we are on the look- 

 out still more alertly as we proceed. This time we see the creature 

 plainly — a small Green Frog. (Fig. 234.) It leaps high into 

 the air and drops into the water, uttering the short, high-pitched 

 cry. It is hard to believe that the sound which startled us was 

 made by this small creature, but we remember that the " Scream- 

 ing Frog " is one of the old names given to the Green Frog. Day 

 after day confirms our experience. Year after year we become 

 accustomed to the fact that young Green Frogs — especially in 

 the spring months — give this short, frightened scream when 

 they are alarmed. 



The older frogs of this species (Figs. 229 and 230) make the 

 same high jump, but they give a very different call when they 

 take refuge in the water.^ This sound is very familiar indeed 

 to every person who has been in the country. It is a nasal 

 " chu-n-ng," or " k-tun-n-ng," so low-pitched that it may be 

 almost or quite an octave below middle C. It is a cheerful, 

 vigorous call, somewhat musical in quality. The croaking of 

 the Green Frog is a sound still different, and is given from 

 shallow water. It is explosive, prolonged, and low-pitched and 

 is likely to be repeated five or six times in succession. When 

 we hear it given with less than its usual force, we may be deceived 

 into thinking that we hear the drumming of a woodpecker. It 

 may be imitated very well by cutting on a table, with heavy 

 shears, some kind of coarse resisting cloth. Or it may be imi- 

 tated less well by tearing heavy cloth in a jerky fashion. It 

 resembles the croaking of the Pickerel Frog, but has more 

 strongly accentuated notes in it. 



The explosive character of the sound will be better under- 

 stood if we watch the frog when he is croaking. He works hard; 

 there is no appearance of external vocal pouches (as in the Leop- 

 ard Frog, Fig. 9), but the yellow throat and the sides expand 

 with such force as to jerk the whole body forward. Slowly the 

 distended parts sink in as the vigorous sounds proceed. Then 

 the throat and sides swell out again, and there follows another 

 explosion of sound. And so on over and over. One yellow- 



i They may give the screaming call also, but I have not heard it. 



199 



