CHAPTER ly 



spring calls, vocal organs, haunts, hatching, 

 courtship, dress, colors, changes, and other 

 ornaments ; weapons, defense, skin-secretions 

 and bluff, in amphibians 



Calls and Music 



In tliose warm days in February when, in our 

 middle latitude, the little male frog first awakes from 

 his winter sleep and puts his head forth, the first cry 

 is not for bread but for company to cheer his lonely 

 heart ; and he never ceases the croak or squeak till 

 he finds it — or, at least, knows that the season is past 

 for finding it, and that bachelorhood for another year 

 stares him in the face. 



Our ponds in the spring are thus made noisy by 

 toads as well as frogs. In fact many of the early trills 

 — especially those which are so prolonged — are from 

 the toads (Fig. 11). Those who have had experience 

 can tell what species is singing, as others can know 

 the songs of birds. Dr. Abbott says that the little 

 cricket-frog cries " pee-ceet " repeatedly ; Dr. Jordan 

 notes that the swamp tree-toad's call is like " the scrap- 

 ing of a coarse-toothed comb," and Professor Cope 

 says the same is " a rattle with a rising inflection at 



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