SPADE-FOOT FROGS 265 



for the first time the creature in the act of 

 calling. And every time I saw him I 

 laughed. He lay stretched out at full length 

 upon the surface of the pool, floating high, 

 as if he were somehow peculiarly buoyant. 

 Then suddenly his hind parts dropped, his 

 head flew up, his enormous white, or pinkish- 

 white, vocal sac was instantaneously inflated 

 (like a white ball on the water), and the 

 grating call was given out ; after which the 

 creature's head dropped, his hinder parts 

 bobbed up into place (sometimes he was 

 nearly overset by the violence of the action), 

 and again he lay silent. 



This same ludicrous performance which 

 by the watch was repeated every three or four 

 seconds I observed more at length in the 

 other pool after my return. It seems to be 

 indulged in only so long as the frogs are 

 unmated. I took it for the call of the male, 

 the " lusty bachelor." At the same moment 

 couples lay here and there upon the water, 

 all silent as dead men. 



That was yesterday afternoon. At night, 

 as had been true the evening previous (the 

 neighbors in at least four of the nearer 



