l8 PALMKR : 



The Leopard Frog, {Ra)ia virescens, Kalm). 



Of Ibis frog Jordan says: " Green, usually bright." That 

 may be so. Some small specimens from the marshy shores of 

 the Delaware, at Chester, were of a bright green, others from 

 the same place rather brownish or bronzy. But in the quite 

 adult condition, as I found them at Augustine Pier, Delaware, 

 and as they are here exhibited, they can hardly be called 

 green at all. These Augustine Pier frogs are perhaps rather 

 remarkable for size also. The limit of length, 2 3^ inches, 

 scarcely covers some of the specimens. 



Let us recall the California small boy. He spoke of some 

 frogs that " went into the grass." Now this is what the leo- 

 pard frogs did at Augustine Pier. Instead of jumping into 

 the pond and swimming for the deepest water, as did the 

 green frogs, they one and all turned and sprang up the bank 

 into tall grass, and with incredible jumps disappeared in the 

 most tangled parts of the herbage. Some went into a little 

 thicket of black berries, where it was impossible to follow 

 them. Three or four, however, were captured. Residents 

 called them " spring frogs," not because they live in springs, 

 but because they are such magnificent jumpers ; and they 

 informed me that these same frogs are to be found, near at 

 hand, six inches long, or twice as big as those I had — which 

 is, of course, a statement of a very doubtful character. 



I note here, that the smaller frogs of this same species, on 

 the marshy shores of the Delaware at Chester, have the same 

 habit of jumping away from the water when alarmed, and 

 that they are capable of most remarkable leaps. 



Thh Pickkrkt, Frog, (Ra?ia palustris, Le Conte). 



This is the most familiar of all the genus, at least to the 

 dair>' farmer and his family. It delights to live in the spring 

 house, and is given to jumping into pans of milk. It is a 

 beautiful creature. The alcoholic specimens entirely fail to 

 show the fine colors wherewith it is decorated in life, and still 



