SHORT STUDIES OF BATRACHTANS. 317 



and such decaying animal-matter as collects in every 

 spring and running brook is likewise consumed. If care 

 be taken to exclude every frog and salamander from a 

 spring, it will be found that very soon the water will not 

 be so pure, however strong the current, as is that of a 

 frog-frequented spring. I have proved this by several 

 careful experiments, and it can only be explained by the 

 fact that these frogs feed upon such organic matter as 

 would, in time, if allowed to remain, affect the quality of 

 the water. In these frogs, then, we have beautiful, harm- 

 less, useful, and cheerful, if not, strictly speaking, mu- 

 sical animals. Is not their title to our good wishes well 

 established ? 



There are other frogs, though, that will attract atten- 

 tion, if we wander by the brookside, with an eye to what- 

 ever is to be seen. A beautiful species, usually called 

 the spring-frog, is likewise very abundant in the meadows, 

 where, all the day long, he sits quietly on the bank of a 

 ditch, unless alarmed, when he gives a great, flying leap, 

 and dives into the depths with a loud splash. Not content 

 with this, he burrows into the mud or hides in the grass, 

 and it then takes a sharp pair of eyes indeed to discover 

 him. When I startle a herring or pickerel frog, I can 

 not tell which it is until I get a glance at the spots on 

 the back. Both move alike; and they jump into the 

 water with a neat dive that scarcely ruffles the surface. 

 It is otherwise, however, with the spring-frog. When I 

 see him flying through the air, with all legs well spread, 

 and hear the splash, I say at once, " clamitans," and nine 

 times in ten I am right. 



This large green frog is not so sensitive to cold as 

 the preceding, and, though " mum " after a frost, it will 

 nevertheless be fully as active as in summer, and will 

 skip over the dead grass with marvelous speed if it sus- 



