SHORT STUDIES OF BATEACHIANS. 333 



ever the ground is at all wet, they are to be seen as thick 

 as grasshoppers in August. Extremely active and quite 

 shy, they are difficult to catch, in case the pursuit is con- 

 fined to a single individual, but, by sweeping an ordinary 

 dip-net along the grass at the edge of any little pool, 

 several are certain to be taken. They feed ravenously 

 at this time, and, even when confined in very cramped 

 quarters, they will devour any flies that may come with- 

 in reach. On the other hand, they appear at this time 

 to constitute the main food-supply of certain fishes, all 

 the snakes, some turtles, and a few birds. I found that 

 all our snakes during April and May were more abun- 

 dant in the meadows than elsewhere, and there can be 

 no doubt that they were drawn thither for the purpose 

 of feeding on these little batrachians. Even that lover 

 of high, dry, and dusty fields, the hog-nosed snake, was 

 found at intervals along the banks of the ditches, appar- 

 ently on the lookout for " peepers," and the dissection 

 subsequently of one of these snakes proved that it had 

 fed upon them. 



About the middle of May there was a very notice- 

 able diminution in their numbers, and by the close of the 

 first week in June not a specimen was to be found. 

 High and low, up hill and down dale, it mattered not 

 where I looked, not a trace of an adult hylodes could I 

 discover. Can it be that their vigor culminates with the 

 maturity of the ova and spermatozoa, and that, having 

 spawned, they have no vital force remaining, and so, in 

 the course of a few weeks after ovipositing, they die ? If 

 this be so, then weeks must elapse without a representa- 

 tive of this batrachian being in existence, and the race is 

 preserved in the tadpoles that swarm in the stagnant 

 ponds and sluggish ditches. This continues until August, 

 when these tadpoles become fully developed " peepers." 



