SHORT STUDIES OF BATRACHTANS. 319 



no food from November to March. Indeed, I could not 

 see an} T living prey for them to take ; and the fact that, in 

 several specimens which I dissected, the digestive tract 

 was quite empty, confirmed me in the supposition. 



Occasionally, in my rambles, I have chanced upon 

 deeper ponds and more retired spots, where, thinking 

 naturally of fish, rather than frogs, I have been startled, 

 as I passed carelessly along, by a loud splash, or a deep 

 note as hoarse as that of a bull in some neighboring pas- 

 ture, but not otherwise similar. I had startled a bull- 

 frog. 



From the high bank, into the deep water, away he 

 had gone, and my chance of seeing him again was indeed 

 small. This deep-voiced, noisy, splashing frog is the 

 largest of the five species common to New Jersey, and, 

 when full grown, it is a rather formidable-looking creat- 

 ure, though, like all the frogs, it is of course quite harm- 

 less. 



The bull-frogs did not fail to attract the attention of 

 Kalm when traveling through New Jersey, and he re- 

 lates some marvelous stories concerning them. His ac- 

 count is as follows : " Bull-frogs are a large species of 

 frogs, which I had an opportunity of hearing and seeing 

 to-day (May 5th, 1749). As I was riding out I heard a 

 roaring before me, and I thought it was a bull in the 

 bushes, on the other side of the dyke, though the sound 

 was rather more hoarse than that of a bull. I was, how- 

 ever, afraid that a bad goring bull might be near me, 

 though I did not see him, and I continued to think so 

 till some hours after, when I talked with some Swedes 

 about the bull-frogs, and, by their account, I immediately 

 found that I had heard their voice ; for the Swedes told 

 me that there were numbers of them in the dyke. I 



