256 HASTY OBSERVATION 



leap to the result that seems to be indicated. 

 If you find a trout in the milk, you may be jus- 

 tified in jumping to a conclusion not flattering 

 to your milkman, but if you find angle-worms 

 in the barrel of rain-water after a shower, you 

 are not to conclude that therefore they rained 

 down, as many people think they do. 



Or if after a shower in summer you find the 

 ground swarming with little toads, you are not 

 to infer that the shower brought them down. 

 I have frequently seen large numbers of little 

 toads hopping about after a shower, but only in 

 particular localities. Upon a small, gravelly 

 hill in the highway along which I was in the 

 habit of walking, I have seen them several sea- 

 sons, but in no other place upon that road. 

 Just why they come out on such occasions is a 

 question; probably to get their jackets wet. 

 There was a pond and marshy ground not far 

 oif where they doubtless hatched. Because the 

 frogs are heard in the marshes in spring as soon 

 as the ice and snow are gone, it is a popular be- 

 lief that they hibernate in these places. But 

 the two earliest frogs, I am convinced, pass the 

 winter in the ground in the woods, and seek 

 the marshes as soon as the frost and ice are 

 gone. I have heard the hyla pipe in a feeble 

 tentative manner in localities where the ground 

 was free from frost, while the marshes near by 

 were yet covered with solid ice; and in spring 

 I have dug out another species from beneath the 

 leaf mould in the woods. Both these species 

 are properly land-frogs, and only take to the 



