84 



RANDOM NOTES ON NATURAL HISTORY. 



Frog when they were of the most beautiful 

 pale euieruld, and marked with spots and 

 bhitches of the lightest brown. A few 

 hours of confinement have sufticed to ren- 

 der them of a deep brown color, the green 

 almost entirely disappearing, and the mac- 

 ulation only appearing on the closest scru- 

 tiny. 



Though familiar to every one, the Bull 

 Frog is not the most abundant species of 

 the genus. It is often seen by those row- 

 ing on our ponds and rivers, as it sits on 

 some warm bank, ready to plunge into the 

 water on being too closely observed. It 

 will generally, however, allow one to ap- 

 proach near enough to drop a small grapple, 

 decorated with some bright - colored 

 worsted, before its capacious mouth, and, 

 judging the value of its food from its ap- 

 pearance only, the fastidious patriarch soon 

 finds himself in the angler's fish-basket, 

 from which he will only emerge in piece- 

 meal to lure the equally omnivorous pickerel, 

 or to garnish the table of the epicure. 



As to the voracious nature of this animal 

 Mr. J, A. Allen writes : 



" I have taken from its stomach young 

 specimens of Chrysemys j^icta an inch and a 

 half in length. And woe be to the hapless 

 3'oung frog that hops into a pool where sits 

 one of these greedy monsters ! When col- 

 lecting birds I have on several occasions 

 had specimens, which fell into the edge of 

 the pond when shot, stolen by them. In 

 one instance a medium-sized Bull Frog 

 seized and attempted to swallow a cedar 

 bird {Ampelis cedrorum) that had fallen 

 near him ; he succeeded to his apparent 

 satisfaction, although the tips of the wings 

 and tail of the specimen projected from his 

 mouth, while he sat composedly waiting for 

 the other end to digest. On another occa- 

 sion a more active fellow gobbled up a rare 

 Warl)ler that chanced to drop near the 

 water, and, to my great disgust, swam off 

 with it beyond m\- reach. Many farmers 

 have learned by sad experience of their 

 ability to swallow small ducklings." 



The geographical distribution of the Bull 

 Frog is extended, it i)eing ftnind from Que- 

 bec to California, and from the great lakes 

 to the Mexican Gtdf ; in these limits, how- 

 ever, it is most abundant in the northeast- 

 ern [)ortions. 



The Shell-Bearing Mollusca of Rhode 

 Island. 



BY HORACE F. CARPENTER. 



Chapter XXII. 



Family GO. Patellidfie. The shells com- 

 prising this extensive family are called lira- 

 pets. They are not spiral like most of the 

 gasteropods, but dish-shaped, more or less 

 conical ; the aperture comprises the entire 

 under side, and of course they have no 

 operculum ; they adhere to stones and are 

 not easily detached unless we come upon 

 them unawares. The family is divided into 

 three sub-families, Lepetinse, Acmaeinae 

 and Patellinse, the second of which only is 

 represented in Rhode Island. 



Sub-ftimily Acmaeinse contains four gen- 

 era and about thirty species. The oxAy 

 species inhabiting our state belongs to the 

 genus Acmoea, Esch., sub-genus Collisella, 

 Dall. 



67. AcM.EA (Collisella) testudinalis, 

 MULLER, 1766. 



Syns. : 



Patella testudinalis, Mull., Fabr., Dill., 

 Wood., Lam. 



Patella clealandii, Sly., Flem. 



Patella amcena, Sa}'. 



Patelloidea amoena, Carth. 



Patelloidea testudinalis, Lea, DeKay. 



Lottia testudinalis, Gould. 



Lottia antillarum, Sl3'. 



Patella clypeus. Brown. 



Tectura testudinalis, Stimp., Dall., Per- 

 kins. 



Collisella testudinalis, Dall., 1870. 



The above list of synonyms are but a 

 few of the many names which have been 

 given to this species. It is a very common 

 species in the boreal regions of Europe, 

 Asia, and America. It extends southward 

 in Europe to England and France ; to 

 Japan in the North Pacific ; inhabits Green- 

 land to Cape Cod, but rare south of it. 

 It has been quoted from Watch Hill, R. I., 

 but I have never heard of any author 

 speaking of it except as an ocean species, 

 that is, found on ocean shores, but it is 

 found in our bay at Warwick Neck light- 

 house, and as far up as Rock}' Point, at 

 least fifteen miles from the ocean. Our 

 specimens are small, from one-half to three- 



