136 FROGS AND TOADS 



THE WOOD FROG* is not often found without specially 

 seeking it. In the spring, when you are searching for early 

 flowers, and are startled by seeing a small dead leaf suddenly 

 take life and leap about four feet, you may know that it is 

 one of these small creatures. It is only 1J^ inches long, being 

 next in smallness to the tree frog. Although for a frog so 

 small it can leap a very long distance, its strength is soon ex- 

 hausted, and its final capture is easily made. 



THE TREE FROG FAMILY 



Hylidae 



If tree frogs were of great rarity, and inhabited only 

 one remote island of a far-distant archipelago, their climbing 

 habits would be accounted as much of a wonder as the flight 

 of the flying frog of Borneo. Being fairly abundant in the 

 eastern United States, the tree frogs are regarded with but 

 a mild degree of interest. 



These creatures, which vary in length from 1 inch to 

 5 inches, have been provided with an opposable thumb, 

 and a very effective sucking disk on the end of each toe, by 

 which they are able to climb trees, and live very comfortably 

 upon their branches. Of all vertebrates that live in trees, 

 these tiny frogs are the most difficult to see. Even when one 

 is chirping boldly and cheerfully within six feet of your eyes, 

 it is necessary to look keenly in order to locate it. There are 

 few kinds of rough bark w r ith which the colors of a tree frog 

 do not combine with startling accuracy. The opposable 

 thumb, which appears in frogs and tree toads for the first time 



1 Ra'na syl-vat'i-ca. 



