Occasional Papers of the Museum of Zoology 7 



w heii the holes are filled with water. Similarly, when handled 

 they make very little effort to escape. They do, however, char- 

 acteristically assume a defensive attitude (PI. i, central figure) 

 by puffing up the body, raising themselves rigidly upon their 

 legs and occasionally snapping their jaws at their captor. 



We did not find the species as abundant in the region as 

 reported by Professor LaRue, and the farmers stated that it 

 is yearly becoming more rare. This is to be expected since 

 more of the land is being cultivated, and the frogs are killed 

 in comparatively large numbers each year by the plows and 

 mowers. We found them much more numerous in the meadows 

 than in the cultivated fiekls, and it was evident that with the 

 continued breaking up of the meadows the species would be- 

 come even more rare in the region. It is also probable that 

 many of the individuals, living as they do in burrows far re- 

 moved from the ponds, do not breed each year and this acts 

 as an additional check to the increase in numbers. 



