NATURE'S CALENDAR 



41 



ing with surprising suddenness into that 

 croaking, rattling chorus of frog-talk that 

 is the most characteristic noise of early 

 spring. Among the earliest, often begin- 

 ning in February, are the "peepers" or 

 " tree-toads " — Pickering's and the com- 

 mon changeable one. Eggs of the former 

 are laid and hatch within a few days, in 

 masses of six or eight; but the latter 

 breeds later. With their peeping is soon 

 mingled the clamor of cricket - frogs, 

 checkered leopard-frogs, the green spring- 

 frogs, then the twanging bellow of the 

 bull-frogs, and at last the chorus is com- 

 plete when the pretty wood-frog sets up 

 its loud clucking towards the middle of 

 the month when the sexes are meeting by 

 the water. The female of the wood-frog 

 is twice the size of the male, and deposits 

 a mass of eggs as large as one's fist, from 

 which tadpoles escape in about a week. 

 An elaborate account of the breeding, 

 hatching, and day -by -day development 

 of this species, written by Miss Mary H. 

 Hinckley, may be found in the " Proceed- 

 ings of the Boston Society of Natural 

 History,"Vol.XXII.,Oct., 1882, pp. 85-95. 

 De Kay notes, in respect to the leopard- 

 frogs, above referred to, that they are ap- 

 propriately so called in Massachusetts. 

 He says that in his day " from its simul- 

 taneous appearance with the shad it is 

 frequently called the 'shad frog'"; and 

 he adds that the Swedish colonists of 

 New Jersey " named them still hoppetos- 



March 8 



