APPENDIX. 371 



are more conspicuous. At intervals we detect the solemn croak 



of the large green-headed frog (Rana fontinalis), which seems to 



put periods to the incessant rattle of the hylodes and toads. They 



seem lialf afraid of this great handsome bully, and his authoritative 



" down, down ! " comes from the undoubted monarch of the swamp. 



This is a very pretty reptile — a dark brown skin barred with black, 



the head and ui)per portion of the back bright grass green, and the 



throat a glaring yellow. Their colours are most developed at mid- 



">mer, when they sit croaking in shallow ponds throughout the 



s well as night, and pursue one another with prodigious leaps. 



seen them clear eight feet at a jump. Returning fi'om fishing, 



tempted these frogs to spring on a red fly dangled over their 



d a disagreeable business the releasing of the slimy monsters 



1 



scene for a Christmas pantomime would be a representation 

 our swamps, with an opening chorus of the little " peepers," 

 .. . ...ughable representation of bull-frogs by agile humans meta- 

 morphosed into reptiles, whilst the staid old toad slowly waddles up 

 the bank, and pours forth his monotonous trill. The hylodes might 

 be shown clinging to the stems of rushes above the surface of the 

 pool (a position in which I have discovered them by the aid of a 

 bull's-eye lantern at night), inflating their immense throat bags to 

 produce their shrill pipe, Avhilst an admirable scenic effect might be 

 rendered by imitation of the swamp vegetation — the tussacs of pink 

 sphagnum perforated by the crimson and green vases of the pitcher 

 plant and covered by the creeping tendrils and great shining 

 apples of the cranberry, clumps of bulrush, pm-ple iris, and other 

 waterside plants, arrow heads, and the two water lilies, white and 

 yellow. 



THE END. 



BRADBURY, EVANS, AND CO., PRINTERS, WHITEFRIARS. 



