The Wit of the Wild 



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brought back into the mouth, which has a few 

 teeth in the upper jaw to help crush the food 

 if necessary to do so before swallowing it. 



If these little frogs would only keep quiet 

 they would rarely be found except by accident, 

 but they are the noisiest of their kind in fact, 

 one of the noisiest creatures in the woods, espe- 

 cially in summer, when nature generally grows 

 quiet. The skin of the throat is as elastic as a 

 rubber ball ; and gulping down a great quantity 

 of air, the hyla will distend his throat until it 

 looks like a small balloon, and then let the air 

 escape through his vocal pipe in a shrill trill 

 that is surprisingly loud and sustained for so 

 small an animal, and can be heard a surprising 

 distance. He never seems to consider that his 

 shouting will betray his position, but will keep 

 at it while you stand close to him and can watch 

 every trembling movement of the inflated throat. 



This loud and not unmusical trill is one of 

 the earliest of spring sounds, though not so 

 early as the peeping of the little yellow, or Pick- 

 ering's, tree-frog, which opens the frog chorus 

 as soon as the ice has gone out of the swamps, 



