Ranidse 



We can find many of them 

 in wet meadows and in the long grass 

 about wells, much farther from the 

 water. They are active hunters, 

 greedily eating spiders, beetles, 

 crickets, grasshoppers, and other 

 small creatures of the ground. Feed 

 one of them with the young grass- 

 hoppers' that are so thick in the 

 clover and grasses. He swallows 

 them one after another — in fact, 

 just as rapidly as he can dispose 

 of the long spiny legs, which still 

 stick out of his mouth after the 

 body of the grasshopper is well 

 swallowed. He will succeed in eat- 

 ing eight or more in a very few min- 

 utes, the look of satisfaction in his 

 eyes increasing as his sides grow 

 plumper. 



Young Leopard Frogs are " aris- 

 tocratic-looking." They seem espec- 

 ially long-nosed and slender. They 

 show the greatest variety in dress. 

 The lateral folds are rich yellow or 

 bronze, as is also the line from the 

 end of the muzzle to the shoulder. 

 The spots are darkest at the edges, 

 and are sometimes not yellow-rimmed as they are in the adults. 

 Some are brown or tan in colour; others are green. And, 

 strangest of all, a few of them have no spots at all. (Fig. 199.) 

 Of these, some are metallic green on head back, and legs, 

 with sides strongly marked by golden longitudinal folds, 

 but with no spot anywhere. Others are plain brown in colour, 

 almost metallic enough to be called bronze, and have the same 

 yellow lateral folds. These are more beautiful than the spotted 

 ones. Some that have plain colour on head and body show ir- 

 regular spots on the legs and arms.^ 



Late March. The Leopard 

 Frogs are croaking in the pond 

 when the blue-birds are decid- 

 ing on a home. 



' Acrididae, or short-homed (jrasshoppers. 



2 Much search has not revealed adults in this dress. 



1 84 



