128 THREE KINGDOMS. 



the overlapping- petals, and the anthers shower the intruder 

 with pollen. But this pollen-shower is an innocent joke com- 

 pared with the trap of Apocynum androsaemifolium, or 'dog- 

 bane. 5 Let a fly but thrust its tongue into a flower, and the 

 stamens instantly fasten on its tip, holding the fly in a grip 

 from which it seldom, if ever, escapes alive. 



THEODORE KELLOGG, De Pere, Wis. 



FROGS AT HOME IN WINTER TIME. 



Some of the readers of these reports may have been puzzled 

 to know where all the frogs came from last spring, almost be- 

 fore the frost was out of the ground. They all seemed well, 

 and able to sing; and in no way did they appear to have 

 suffered from the cold weather. I am often obliged, during 

 the winter months, to secure the assistance of a frog to make 

 the fact of blood-circulation plain to my students in zoology, 

 and, as I do not always have a supply of frogs on hand, I have 

 many times gone to their winter homes and taken them out 

 of their comfortable quarters for a course in the laboratory. 

 A spring is selected, which contains as many stones, sticks, 

 leaves, and as much mud, as possible, and a regular attack 

 upon the inhabitants is at once commenced. I first dig a ditch 

 to drain off the water, and then I remove carefully the sticks 

 and stones, watching all the time for signs of life under each 

 piece; and afterward I dig down into the mud, usually with 

 my hands, to avoid hurting the animals which may be buried 

 in it. I have never failed to catch several frogs, cray-fish, 

 newts, worms, and sometimes minnows and smaller animals, 

 fit for winter study. I have always been repaid for my trouble 

 by the enthusiasm with which three or four students who 

 volunteered to help me dig in the mud after the specimens, 

 and by the interest they take in learning how a frog passes 

 cold winter in the northwestern Pennsylvania, at an altitude 

 of twelve hundred feet above the sea, when the temperature 

 is often twenty degrees below zero, and the ground frozen 

 from three to five feet deep. Of course large numbers of these 

 animals winter in swamps, though we cannot find them there, 

 but we may always be sure of our game if we choose a living 

 spring. J. H. MONTGOMERY. 



