nearly blind, trying to make out a cricket-frog 

 that was piping all the while somewhere near or 

 upon them. At last, in despair, I made a dash 

 at the pads, only to see the wake as the peeper 

 sank to the bottom an instant before my net 

 struck the surface. 



The entire frog family is as protectively col- 

 ored as this least member, the cricket-frog. They 

 all carry fern-seed in their pockets and go invis- 

 ible. Notice the wood-frog with his tan suit and 

 black cheeks. He is a mere sound as he hops 

 about over the brown leaves. I have had him 

 jump out of the way of my feet and vanish while 

 I stared hard at him. He lands with legs ex- 

 tended, purposely simulating the shape of the 

 ragged, broken leaves, and offers, as the only 

 clue for one's baffled eyes, the moist glisten as 

 his body dissolves against the dead brown of the 

 leaf-carpet. The tree-toad, Hyla versicolor, still 

 more strikingly blends with his surroundings, for, 

 to a certain extent, he can change color to match 

 the bark upon which he sits. More than once, in 

 climbing apple-trees, I have put my hand upon 

 a tree-toad, not distinguishing it from the patches 

 of gray-green lichen upon the limbs. But there 

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