SOME RESOURCES FOR PROTECTION AMONG REPTILES. 73 



have observed. The renal excretion in this and other 

 reptiles may possibly surprise and disgust fastidious ene- 

 mies and perhaps the sudden and rattling note of the 

 creature may awaken hesitation and allow escape. When, 

 as a l)oy, I spent much time in the trees around our house, 

 I was often surprised at the abandon with which these 

 little creatures would jump from the very topmost boughs 

 to escape me. Usually they caught on something as they 

 fell. But when they came down on the gravel path they 

 were not harmed — apparently not even by a moment of 

 stomach-ache ! A precipitate leap, then, is a last resort. 

 Except for these and other resources, various birds might 

 count Hyla versicolor LeC. a frog for an epicure. I may 

 add one incidental observation on this reptile, namely, its 

 singular unwillingness to get into water. For a creature 

 that has been a tadpole and so recently left some pond 

 this seemed strange, and others may determine whether 

 it is always subject to such a liydrophohia. 



Some changeableness of color is observable in the fa- 

 miliar toad. In a manure cellar or on the black loam of a 

 swamp he will be almost a negro. Living on light-hued 

 gravel he will be a Caucasian. A very black specimen 

 which I put in a box of white paper changed remarkably 

 in a few days, but not so rapidly as the Hyla. 



It is doubtless true that to some extent many other 

 creatures vary in a similar way according to the surfaces 

 on which they live. Whether or not human disease of 

 mind and body may be alleviated by living in light of 

 certain colors, we know that our " animal spirits " vary 

 with the weather. A long period of clouded sky has a 

 depressing effect on most minds. The influence which 

 comes from companionship is a fact of not very remote 

 connection. It would hardly seem that the dark skin of 

 the Ethiopian or the Arab could he exi)lainod by tropical 



ESSEX INST. BULLETIN, VOL XXVIII 5* 



