106 A NATURE WOOING. 



lately that I succeeded in capturing a specimen, and 

 found to my surprise that the so-called toad was a ver- 

 itable frog. The herpetologists of the National Mu- 

 seum, to whom I have recently forwarded specimens, 

 pronounce it the very rare subspecies Rana areolata 

 cvsopiis Cope. Indeed, only the type specimen ex- 

 isted in the Museum collection, and of its habits noth- 

 ing is known. 



"The desire to know something more of the gopher 

 and its associates led me finally to undertake the la- 

 borious task of excavating and thoroughly examining 

 one of their burrows. Accordingly, in January, 1893, 

 I selected one of the largest burrows near my winter 

 home at Crescent City, Florida, and proceeded to 

 open and inspect its inner recesses. The excavation 

 was in the loose yellow sand of our pine woods sub- 

 soil, and when my exploration was completed, so large 

 a pit had been dug that a coach and span of horses 

 might have been swallowed up in it. 



"I had not descended many feet along the course 

 of the burrow when I found that the walls and, par- 

 ticularly the roof of the gallery, were alive with speci- 

 mens of a wingless cricket* of the genus Ceutho- 

 philus. 



"I next caught a glimpse of a very diaphanous Sta- 

 phylinid, but so agile was this beetle and so like in 

 color to the surrounding sand that several specimens 

 slipped in succession through my fingers and escaped 



"Not a true cricket, but a member of the family Locustidae W. S. B. 



