322 RAMBLES ABOUT HOME. 



environment has grown yearly less desirable, and degen- 

 eration has set in. In a few score generations more the 

 mammoth bnll-frog itself will have gone the way of the 

 mastodon and great auk, and there will be left but a few 

 pygmy descendants to testify to its great size. 



Let us, however, take up Kalm's description by sec- 

 tions, and see how it applies to the indefinitely great- 

 great-grandchildren of the frogs of his time. And, first 

 of all, as to its voice : can any one say now that the 

 familiar notes, often and aptly likened to " jug-o'-rum, 

 jug-o'-rum," has a bovine sound ? Of late I. have lin- 

 gered long in the meadows, listening to the bull-frogs in 

 the ditch hard by, and then to the mooing of the cows 

 as they come from the pasture. Perhaps there is a simi- 

 larity, but I could never detect it. So common, how- 

 ever, is it to hear the comparison made, that I suppose 

 the resemblance must have been true of them formerly, 

 if not now. Gabriel Thomas, in his quaint little history 

 of Pennsylvania, published in 1698, speaking of the vari- 

 ous sorts of frogs, says there is " the Bull Frog, which 

 makes a roaring noise, hardly to be distinguished from 

 that well known of the Beast from whom it takes its 

 Name." I can only go so far as to admit it is a deep 

 bass note, but always well defined, and not a roar, even 

 when a dozen are croaking together. Kalm's description 

 of their croaking in concert is excellent, but it would be 

 better to say that each concert has its leader, rather than 

 each company its captain. The latter, if true, would be 

 evidence of considerable intelligence ; but it is only ap- 

 parently true of them. I have very carefully watched 

 the bull-frogs in a pond near my house, and have found 

 that the croaking of the " captain " is not always that 

 of the same individual. At times the initial croak 

 would come from one side of the pond, then the other. 



