428 BULLETIN 34, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



This species prefers larger bodies of water, aud especially bauiits the 

 shores "where thickets aud underbrush make them iuaccessible. Its 

 voice is familiar to all dwellers in the country, having much the tone 

 of that of a bull, but with a better-defined enunciatiou. it may be im- 

 itated by uttering a bass "br'wum" several times in succession, with a 

 hoarse voice, in front of an empty cask or other reverberating cavity. 

 Familiar imitations of it are the words '^be drowned" or "more rum." 

 The voice is not uttered until the arrival of warm weather, and is con- 

 tinued during the evening throughout its continuance. It may be 

 heard for a distance of several miies. 



Dr. J. H. Garnier* points out the relationship between this species 

 and the E. clamata and E. septentrionalis, in the following language: 



"(1) They have no chant amour, or love notes, in spring. (2) They 

 retire early to hibernate with the first autumnal frost. (3) They live in 

 the water and lie in wait for their food, but do not hunt for it on land. 

 They poise the body on any floating weeds, lie on the bank or any bit 

 of stick or log that suits their purpose. (4) The tadpoles of E. cateshiana 

 and B.clamata require two years to mature, and the ' mink frog' {E. sep- 

 tcntrionalis) requires the same period. (5 and G) The foot is broader in 

 proportion than in the rest of the famil}^ (? genus), and the second toe 

 is proportionally stouter, a peculiarity emphatically distinct, which can 

 be seen at a glance. (7) When captured they sometimes utter a cry of 

 distress quite different from their ordinary croaking notes, and I have 

 often seen the bull-frog (E. cateshiana) 0})en his mouth and scream for 

 over a minute. (8) When they give their note it is always produced by 

 inflating the throat-pouch and suddenly expelling the air, whereas in E. 

 virescens, etc., there is a pouch near the angle of the jaws, on either side. 

 (0.) They are all tinged more or less with yellowish-green on the chin, 

 which soon shades towards the throat and breast, and the belly is M'hite, 

 or nearly so." 



RANA MONTEZUMA Baird. f 



liana montezumw Baird, Proceed. Ac. Pbila., 1855, p. CI ; Girard, U. S. Mex. Bound. 

 Surv., Eeptiles., p. 27, PI. 36, fifj. 1-6; Broccbi, Miss. Sc. Mex. Batr., p. 14, PI. 

 IV, fig. 2. 



The general form is rather squat aud heavy; in this respect re- 

 sembling the Northern buil-frog, or Eana cateshiana. Like it, it is with- 

 out any lateral ridge of the skin on the back, or if such be present, it is 

 interrupted and soon disappears. The head is depressed, the augles 

 all rounded, cauthus rostralis not distinct; the nostrils situated a little 

 below its highest part, about half-way between thee^e and tip of snout. 

 The top of the head is slightly convex between the eyes, without any 

 groove. There is a slight depression behind and below the exterior 

 nostrils, and which, proceeding backwards, becomes obsolete below 

 the anterior canthus of the orbit and then reappears below the middle 

 'American Naturalish, 1883, p. 948. t Plate 51, fig. 12. 



