THE “TOAD GROUP” IN THE AMERICAN MUSEUM 
A WORD AS TO ITS COMPOSITE CONSTRUCTION AND INTEREST 
Group designed and construction directed by M. C. Dickerson; panoramic canvas by Hobart 
Nichols; detailed wax and color technique on the animals of the group by Frederick H. Stoll; group 
assembled by Ernest W. Smith and Frederick H. Stoll 
By Mary Cynthia Dickerson 
HE new group, fourth in the 
reptile and amphibian series, 
has been made with three im- 
portant objects in view: first that it 
should set forth various facts in the 
ecology and general biology of amphibia; 
second that it should be more easily 
read than a book by those who wish to 
learn these facts; and third that it 
should be as beautiful as is the original 
spot lying under the sunshine of May 
in Rehoboth Township, Massachusetts. 
There should not be left out however 
even momentarily, afourth aim which has 
controlled the work from first to last. 
This is that the group, while made up 
of the most delicate and fragile of con- 
stituent parts, should be permanent in 
construction, capable of lasting un- 
changed for decades, in fact indefinitely, 
if not destroyed by fire or earthquake. 
In its scientific scope the group aims 
to set forth certain simple facts many of 
which are very well known to zo6logists 
and laymen alike who wander much 
afield. These include such items as the 
difference in appearance and in time of 
breeding (in southern New England) of 
nine species of common amphibians,! 
1 The group includes specimens of two kinds of 
tree frogs, the tiny ‘‘spring peeper’’ (Hyla picker- 
ingii) whose voice in chorus carries over the 
countryside a half mile or more in early spring, 
and the common so-called ‘‘tree toad’’ and 
“weather prophet”’ (Hyla versicolor); two species 
of toads, the American (Bufo americanus), breed- 
ing in the middle of April, and the smaller, grayer, 
more agile Fowler’s toad (Bufo fowleri) coming 
to the pond from its hibernation the first week of 
May; three frogs, the green frog (Rana clamitans) 
and the identification for the ponds of 
northeastern North America of the 
amphibian eggs commonly seen. These 
latter include the eggs of frogs, repre- 
sented in the group by the freshly laid 
eggs of the green frog and hatching eggs 
of the pickerel frog; those of sala- 
manders, in the whole range of which 
there is more variation than among 
frogs, but among which the eggs com- 
monly found are those shown in the 
group, the large gelatinous masses of 
the spotted salamander; and _ lastly 
those typical of toads, represented by 
eggs of Fowler’s toad in the group, the 
long gelatinous strings in which the eggs 
are imbedded at intervals. The eggs 
in the group are accurate reproductions 
in glass treated with color and wax spray, 
and are the first attempt by museums to 
represent them as far as known. 
Some of the unusual facts set forth, 
the results of original investigation in the 
field, concern such points as the dis- 
tinction between the two species of toads 
and difference in their adaptation to low 
temperature as shown in their different 
often confused with the larger bullfrog (Rana 
catesbiana) (See bullfrog group), the spotted 
pickerel frog (Rana palustris) confused with the 
leopard frog (Rana pipiens) (See casts in synoptic 
case), and the little brown wood frog (Rana 
sylvatica) inured to the same low temperatures as 
are the amblystoma of the region and the peeper, 
thus appearing in March from its winter sleep in 
the mud; and finally two salamanders, the big 
black and yellow spotted salamander (A mblys- 
toma punctatum) which is more often seen in 
damp places on land than in water, and the com- 
mon small brown newt never seen out of water 
after it is one year old. 
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