RANA HALECINA. 93 
shire to Georgia: Leconte has seen it in the south-western states; Lesueur on 
the Wabash, and Say even at the Lake of the Woods, in lat. 49°. 
Hasirs. This is a lively, active animal, leaping the distance of eight or ten feet 
when disturbed; it feeds on insects, and is commonly found in damp places, or on 
the margins of pools of fresh water. Bosc says it is seldom seen far from water; 
but Ihave frequently met with it in meadows and clover fields, when the dew 
was abundant, in search of insects, at a great distance from its accustomed haunts. 
Geverat Remarks. The history of this Frog is a good deal obscured by 
reference to very dissimilar animals in the works of naturalists; yet by taking 
the earlier descriptions, it may be made clear. Catesby certainly first described 
the Rana halecina under the name Water-frog, and accompanied his description 
with a very good figure. 
The next mention made of this animal is by Kalm,* a Swedish traveller, an 
accurate observer, and excellent naturalist, who called it the Shad-frog, and 
believed it to be identical with the Rana ocellata of Linneus. He has described 
its habits, observing that it appears in Pennsylvania in the spring of the year with 
the shad and herring, and hence the Swedes who settled on the Delaware called it 
“Sill hoppetosser,” or herring hopper: in his “Travels” it is called Rana halecina, 
“halec” being an Indian name for shad or herring. Linnzust probably considered 
the Rana halecina, from Kalm’s description of it, as identical with his Rana 
ocellata, to which it bears but a slight resemblance; both are certainly ocellated, 
but the spots are not disposed in the same manner; the Rana ocellata is more 
than twice the size of the Rana halecina, is peculiar to the West Indies and 
South America, and has never been found in the United States. Linnzeus gave a 
still more remarkable reference to the Rana maxima Americana aquatica of 
Catesby, which is certainly the Bull-frog, and entirely unlike the Rana halecina. 
* Kalm’s Travels in North America, Forster’s translation, vol. ii. p. 88. 
+ Linneus, Syst. Nat., vol. i. p. 356. 
