SHORT STUDIES OF BATRACHIANS. 327 



therefore, it differs from both the others, so far as this is 

 necessary to its peculiar mode of life ; the most promi- 

 nent variation being found in the lingers and toes, which 

 are more or less dilated into disks at their tips. 



This little tree-toad soon attracted the attention of the 

 early colonists of New Jersey, and I find mention made 

 of it as early as 1698. Gabriel Thomas, whom I have 

 already quoted, refers to a " sort of Frog, that crawls up to 

 the tops of Trees, there seeming to imitate the Notes of 

 several Birds" The idea of the resemblance of its note 

 to that of " several birds," or of any one kind of bird, is 

 rather amusing. Like all of our batrachians, the tree- 

 toads make their way to the water as the proper place 

 for depositing their eggs. These eggs are " attached 

 singly and in small groups along the grasses resting on 

 the water's surface." Eggs deposited on May 10th are 

 recorded by Miss Hinckley, in the " Proceedings of the 

 Boston Society of Natural History," to have hatched two 

 days later, and passed through the tadpole state by July 

 4th, when the tadpoles were found " at the water's edge, 

 with the tail reduced to a mere stump." 



My own knowledge of these little creatures covers 

 only their arboreal life. I have never seen them except 

 in their high and dry quarters ; not always dry, either, 

 for they love damp hollows in the angles of the branches 

 where a little rain lodges. 



The old apple-trees in the lane are sure to be tenanted 

 by several tree-toads every year, and the little that I have 

 learned of them has been by watching those that fre- 

 quented this one locality. This, by the way, is not re- 

 commended as a safe way of studying the habits of ani- 

 mals, as there would be nothing improbable, from what 

 we know of other animals, in tree-toads acting quite dif- 

 ferently in different trees. Suppose them, for instance, 



