COMMON FROGS AND SALAMANDERS 299 



fair size. The open season should not be longer than August 

 and September. The food of the bullfrog seems to be any liv- 

 ing thing that it can even partially swallow. I have seen one 

 swallow the head end of a live mud puppy fully twice the length 

 of the frog's body. Another observer has recorded a similar 

 instance of the fate of a young alligator. Mice, birds, feathers 

 and all, fishes, crayfishes, insects, worms, tadpoles, and frogs of 

 its own and other species are acceptable, and in this struggle size 

 may not count for so much as first hold. In confinement they 

 may be fed on earthworms, grasshoppers, and other insects, and 

 it is not beneath the dignity of the biggest of them to sit all day 

 long beside a bone and snap the flies as they come. 



Wood Frog, R. sylvatica. Color, greenish to reddish brown, chang- 

 ing somewhat according to surroundings ; a dark band on each 

 side of head extending over the eye and ear to insertion of arm ; 

 legs obscurely barred, and sides speckled with black. A small 

 frog found commonly in the woods, scarcely aquatic, can leap 

 farther than any other of our frogs. Its note is a hoarse croak, 

 heard in April, when it comes down to the ponds to spawn. 

 Aside from the common notion that it feeds on insects nothing 

 definite is known as to its food. 



SPADEFOOTS, Scaphiopus. Terrestrial frog's heel provided with a 

 spur for digging. Form toad-like. Genera two, species four. 



Spadefoot Frog, S. holbrookii. Length, three inches ; skin rough ; 

 color, earthy or ashy brown. From all accounts these frogs 

 bury themselves in the earth during the day, coming out to feed 

 at night, and, while widely distributed, are neither seen nor 

 heard except during the spawning season, when they are said 

 to be "noisy whistlers." 



TREE FROGS, Hyla. Small ; arboreal ; fingers and toes with tips 

 expanded into clasping disks. Genera ten, species sixty. 



Common Tree Frog, H. versicolor. Color above, green, gray, or 

 brown, with irregular dark spots ; white or yellow below. A 

 common inhabitant of orchards and waysides, but a good test 



