338 GENERAL ZOOLOGY 



leaps away, it is usually into the water with a loud "plunk." 

 A few swift strokes of the hind legs serve to carry the ani- 

 mal to shelter beneath protecting debris in the water. There 

 it is able to remain for a considerable period without the 

 necessity of rising to the surface for oxygen, owing to the 

 low state of all the life-processes. The frog has numerous 

 enemies, among which are owls, hawks, and herons, many 

 snakes and other reptiles, and several fur-bearing creatures 

 which come to the water in search of food. 



During the winter green frogs, like some other frogs, 

 hibernate in the mud at the bottom of pools. With return- 

 ing spring they congregate to lay their eggs, and the males 

 may then be heard calling to the females in an unmusical 

 u chung," "chung," which is not as familiar a sound, per- 

 haps, as the bass voice of the bullfrog or the high-pitched, 

 insistent note of the spring " peepers " (p. 344). After provid- 

 ing for the reproduction of the species, the green frog spends 

 the rest of the summer in its rather solitary life on the bank 

 of some stream or spring-hole. 



