SHORT STUDIES OF B ATRAC III ASS. 313 



few people who are not familiar with the prominent 

 points of their life-histories. This, however, need not 

 deter us from studying them, as probably not one half 

 the whole truth is yet known ; and, besides, there are 

 many prevalent errors to be corrected. 



Referring to frogs, I recall the words of Peter Kalm, 

 when he visited this neighborhood. One hundred and 

 thirty-two years ago, yesterday (May 31st), he records 

 that " toward night, after the tide had begun to ebb, and 

 the wind was quite subsided, we could not proceed, but 

 dropped our anchor about seven miles from Trenton, and 

 passed the night there. The woods were full of fire-flies 

 \Lampyris\ which flew like sparks of fire between the 

 trees, and sometimes across the river. In the marshes 

 the bullfrogs now and then began their hideous roaring, 

 rind more than a hundred of them roared together. The 

 whip-poor-will was likewise heard everywhere." "While 

 I am writing I glance from my paper, through the study- 

 window, and I see the very spot where Kalm tarried on 

 that summer night. The same marshes are there, and 

 remains of the forest ; and on any pleasant summer night 

 we may still see myriads of fire-flies, and hear the " hide- 

 ous roaring " of the frogs, and scarcely less monotonous 

 call of the whippoorwill. 



Let us now consider these various frogs and salaman- 

 ders seriatim. 



Perhaps the most common of all our frogs is that of 

 which Kalm has given a very good description in his 

 " Travels in North America." Speaking of it, he says : 

 " Rana ocellata are a kind of frogs here (New Jersey), 

 which the Swedes call sill-Jioppe tosser, i. e., herring-hop- 

 pers, and which now (March) began to quack in the 

 evening and at night, in swamps, pools, and ponds. The 

 name which the Swedes give them is derived from their 



