aquatic ILxtt 



133 



centre of its cage, apparently quite con- 

 tent with its surroundings. 



Of course, this frog is enjoying special 

 care, and we look forward to keeping it 

 for a reasonably long time. 



(Reprinted by permission, with cour- 

 tesy of use of illustration, from the Zoo- 

 logical Society Bulletin, New York.) 



An Earlier Record 



At the end of September a young stu- 

 dent of the Packer Institute, of this city, 

 told us of a curiously colored frog which 

 she had caught a day or two before 

 near her country home at Orient, Long 

 Island. When the specimen was brought 

 to us afterwards for identification, we 

 recognized it at once as an albino leopard 

 frog (Rana halecina). 



The upper part of the body of the 

 common leopard frog is green or brown 

 in color, in both cases with a brilliant 

 bronze lustre ; the two folds along its 

 back are bronze colored, standing well 

 out from their darker base ; upon its 

 back are dark, round spots arranged in 

 two lines, while the upper parts of the 

 hind legs are ornamented with dark bars. 



The specimen in question is a fully 

 developed male, about three years old. 

 'he color of all parts of its body, seen 

 from above, is a brilliant cream ; whiie 

 the underside of the specimen is pure 

 white ; along its back and on the hind 

 legs the markings, characteristic to the 

 species, appear indistinctly also in cream 

 color, just a trifle deeper in shade ; they 

 can be made out by close inspection. The 

 eyes are of a beautiful pink. Owing to 

 the absence of dark colors in the skin, 

 the animal has a very delicate appear- 

 ance; it looks as if it was carved of 

 ivory. 



We have seen albino deer, fox, squir- 

 rels, ferrets, cats, raven, eel and years 

 ago had an albino catfish (Amiurus mar- 



moratus) in our collection, not to men- 

 tion the more frequent albino rabbits, 

 rats and mice, but for nearly half a 

 century during which we collected and 

 handled large numbers of every known 

 species of batrachians, we have never 

 before seen an albino frog, nor have we 

 read or heard that anyone else ever has 

 noticed such a freak in frogdom. It 

 may, however, be safely said that this 

 albino frog is the first one on record. 



The specimen enjoys good health in 

 one of the smaller aquariums of the 

 Institute, where it is admired by the 

 students at their leisure moments. 



(The foregoing appears in the long 

 since defunct magazine, The Aquar- 

 ium, in the issue of January, 1897, and 

 was presumably written by the editor 

 and publisher, Hugo Mulertt. While it 

 invalidates Mr. Deckert's assertion of 

 priority, it in no way detracts from the 

 value of the record, and America may 

 now lay claim to albinism in two frogs, 

 each the first record for the species. The 

 specimen described by Mr. Deckert is 

 the Green Frog, Rana clamitans, which, 

 by the uninitiated, is sometimes apt to 

 be confused with the Bullfrog, Rana 

 catesbiana, though the latter is a larger 

 species. Mr. Mulertt's specimen is the 

 common Leopard Frog, which he calls 

 Rana halecina, a name that has since 

 fallen into disuse, and in more recent 

 works it will be found referred to as 

 R. Virescens or R. pipiens. In his brief 

 description of the normal colors it will 

 be noticed that he places emphasis on 

 the fact that the spots, two rows between 

 the lateral folds, are round. They are 

 not, however, always round, and are 

 better described as "rounded" when con- 

 sidering a normal specimen, though vari- 

 ants occasionally exhibit round spots. 

 However, it was evidently Mulertt's de- 

 sire in this connection to make it clear 

 that he had not confused the specimen 



