Rana and Bufo. 1 79 



green dress, which is spotted with black, and by a membrane 

 stretched between his toes, which gives him a broad, flat sur- 

 face, while it helps to sustain him as he leaps, somewhat after 

 the fashion of a flying squirrel, from branch to branch. In 

 tropical regions, where many of the trees are bedecked 

 with gorgeous blossoms, Tree-frogs appear in the gayest of 

 colors, the splendor of their garb being protective in such 

 surroundings. 



Dressed in black and light brown, and living in marshes 

 in the Eastern United States, is another species the Swamp- 

 frog. His voice is a prolonged croak, which, to the prac- 

 tised ear, can be readily distinguished from the bawl of 

 Clamata, or the roar of the Bull-frog. 



Cats, geese, hawks, vultures, owls and other animals eat 

 frogs, and the luckless creatures can scarcely appear without 

 finding an enemy. But nature, who is a very wise and con- 

 siderate mother, provides a means for balancing this great 

 destruction of their forces in endowing them with wonderful 

 reproductive organs. So prolific are frogs, that when the 

 little black tadpoles appear, so thickly are they huddled 

 together that the pond seems literally alive with their swim- 

 ming forms. 



In the same class of animals to which the frogs belong, as 

 well as to the same order, but to a different sub-order, are 

 placed the toads, somewhat remote cousins of the frogs. 

 As the frog is well-known about our ponds, so the toad is a 

 constant denizen of our groves and gardens. The frog, you 

 have been told, is a species of Rana, and now I shall intro- 

 duce to you the toad as a species of Bufo. In general 

 anatomy they are alike. Their eggs and young are closely 

 similar, and the stages of growth from egg to adult form are 

 nearly identical. When the adult stage is attained the frogs 

 and toads are very tiny creatures, but, small as they are, 

 they are readily distinguishable from each other by the 

 conformation of the snout, and by the larger development 

 of the hind-legs of the frog. Their chief differences will now 



