396 



AMERICAN FORESTRY 



Several species of frogs breed in our ponds ; and in this 

 month of June not only may we see them jumping into 

 the water as we walk along their margins, but we may 

 note, too, their various kinds of tadpoles, seen swimming 

 about just below the surface. Great, big fellows, some 

 of them, being the tadpoles of the bullfrog, and by no 

 means easy to capture, even with a good dip-net. Speak- 

 ing of frogs, it was only last June perhaps a little earlier 

 that the writer captured a most interesting specimen of 

 a frog which he had never before seen alive so far north. 

 It was living in a deep wagon-rut filled with rain water, 

 in a piece of woods running along the Potomac on the Vir- 

 ginia side, a mile or so west of Mount Vernon. It proved 

 to be a fine specimen of the Southern Bullfrog (Fig. 4), 

 and doubtless a male, as its ear-drum was much larger 

 than its eye, and its eyes were placed unusually close 

 together. Superiorly, its head and shoulders were of an 



WILD BLACKBERRY IN FRUIT 



Fig. 5 The shrubby plants of this group all belong in the 

 Rose family. When young, the fruit is red hence its name 

 ruber (Roman). We have more than forty species of them 

 in the flora of the United States, and they range from coast 

 to coast. When in blossom in New England, they look like 

 this in Georgia. 



elegant green, most vivid in tint, and this gradually 

 shaded into a bronzy or olive color behind. Its nostrils 

 were more prominent than we find them in the common 

 bullfrog, and its face was longer and more pointed. The 



&y^.vjj 



THE SOUTHERN BULLFROG 



Fig. 4 This species was first found at Bay St. Louis, Mis- 

 sissippi, and has been taken in Florida. The specimen here 

 shown was captured by the writer in Virginia, just west of 

 Mt. Vernon. It was in the water of a deep wagon rut in the 

 woods, and was apparently a male. 



groove down the middle of its back is well seen in the 

 reproduction of the excellent photograph the writer ob- 

 tained of the living specimen. It was at Bay St. Louis, 

 Mississippi, that this species was first discovered, and it 

 has also been captured in various places in Florida ; but 

 the writer is not aware that it has been taken so far north 

 heretofore. As compared with our common bullfrog, it is 

 an entirely different looking species ; it outclasses the lat- 

 ter entirely in coloring, and may readily be recognized by 

 other characters which it presents. Specimens of this 

 frog were frequently taken by the writer in the bayous 

 and ponds south of New Orleans, Louisiana, nearly forty 

 years ago, and these were examined along with other 

 batrachians, by the late Prof. E. D. Cope. 



Well down the coast in June, everything in nature is 

 much further advanced than is the case northward. In 

 the Carolinas, the field blackberries may be in full fruit, 

 and there is no more beautiful sight than masses of bushes 

 of them when such is the case (Fig. 5). 



Those who were out much in the open during the sum- 

 mer of 1920, in the northeast Atlantic Coast States, will 

 remember what a peculiar year it was with respect to the 

 presence of insects, birds and flowering plants. Insects 

 of every description were remarkably scarce, some but- 

 terflies and moths not being observed at all. To be sure, 



