30 FROGS. 



the author's limited experience with the species suggests that the 

 eggs are usually laid durmg the sprmg or early suinmer. Deckert " 

 found their eggs on August 28. The eggs were "laid in oblong, jelly- 

 like sheets or flat masses about 1 i inches long and 1 inch wide. The 

 egg masses contam about 100 to 150 eggs." 



The oak toad breeds in May and June, most of the egg laymg 

 doubtless occurrmg before June 15. The egg strmg is laid in warm, 

 shallow ponds, and many of these eggs or the subsequent tadpoles 

 are dried up by the rapid evaporation of the very transient breeding 

 pools. The egg string or file is a small edition of the southern toad's 

 egg string, the former being much smaller in diameter than the latter. 

 A female oak toad may deposit 500 to 600 eggs, while a common toad 

 produces 4,000 or more. The eggs of the oak toad are slightly smaller 

 than those of the common toad. 



TADPOLES (PL. XX). 



For the average layman the tadpole might prove the easiest start- 

 ing point in attempting frog culture: Individual breeders must be 

 secured just before mating; to take mated pairs is more difficult; the 

 egg period is short and the chances of finding eggs restricted by time 

 and the expertness of the seeker; but the tadpoles of some of the best 

 species may be had at almost any time, the green frog remaining a year 

 in the tadpole stage and the bullfrog two years. There are a few car- 

 dinal considerations to be borne ui mind : Any large tadpole of the east- 

 em United States found in the spring before May 1 Is, so far as we 

 now know, either a green frog or a bulKrog tadpole. Usually tadpoles 

 taken after September 1, and almost surely after October 1, must be 

 of the green-frog or the bullfrog species. Throughout the summer, 

 when the other tadpoles are present, if a tadpole be at least 2 inches 

 or more in length, it is generally either that of a leopard frog, pickerel 

 frog, or bullfrog, all desirable species. In proportion to their size, 

 these commercial frogs have smaller eggs than the smaller species of 

 frogs, and, consequently, the period of tadpole development and 

 growth to adult form may also consume more time both actually 

 and relatively. 



Desirable Species. — The tadpoles of the leopard frog transform 

 during the same season in which the eggs are laid. The eggs are 

 relatively larger and the size at transformation is smaller than in the 

 green frog and the bullfrog. Usually 71 to 111 days elapse between 

 egg laying and the change to small frogs, or 60 to 80 days elapse between 

 the hatching of the eggs and transformation. The tadpoles of the 

 leopard frog are very seldom found after August 15. The distinctive 

 marks are: Ci-ests of the tail (not muscular portion) conspicuously 

 lighter than the body, ahnost transparent, and marked with widely 

 scattered fine spots or specks; belly deep cream color with bronzy 

 iridescence; greatest length, 3 to 3.4 inches. (See PI. XX, fig. 4.) 



The pickerel-frog tadpoles change into frogs the same season the 

 eggs are laid. The developmental period from the egg to trans- 

 formation consumes from 87 to 100 days; the period from egg 

 hatching to transformation 76 to 85 days. The distinctive marks of 

 the tadpole are: Tail crests not transparent or translucent, as in the 

 leopard frog, but opaque, very dark, sometimes almost purplish 



a Deckert, R. F.: Further notes on the Salientia of Jacksonville, Fla. Copeia, No. 9, p. 1, 1914. 



