JONES ON REPTILIA OF NOVA SCOTIA. 125 



at that time. It appears to frequent the cultivated districts more 

 than the forest, although the largest specimen I ever obtained was 

 found in the day time in an uncleared spot in a hard- wood grove. 

 This specimen measured four inches and a half in length, including 

 the head, which was one inch and four lines, and three and a quarter 

 inches in breadth of body. About the end of May the young, about 

 an inch long, are often seen hopping about, and then gradually in- 

 creasing in growth, as the summer advances, contmue about until 

 the first sharp frosts of October and November compel them to seek 

 their winter retreats. I have never observed them about later than 

 the first week of November. 



It appears to be common in all parts of the North American 

 continent, extendmg from Great Bear Lake in the Hudson Bay 

 Territory to Mexico. 



Genus— HYLODES, Fitz. 

 Hylodes Pickeringii — Holb Pickering's Hylodes. 



H. Pickeringii — Holb. N. Am, Herpet, pi. -34. 



Acris PicJceringii — Gunth. Cat. Bat. Sal., p. 71. 

 For three years I laboured under a great mistake in regard to 

 the note of this little frog. Often had I listened at all hours of 

 night to its shi'ill piping noise, and always gave the common frog 

 (R. fontmalis) credit for the strange nocturnal sound ; but Capt. 

 Hardy informed me that the musician was no other than Hylodes 

 Pickeringii, several specimens of which he exhibited at our conver- 

 sazione last summer. It is by no means easy to collect specimens 

 of this species, for although I have searched and searched again 

 with a bright lantern on summer nights, when they piped loudest, 

 I have never yet been able to procure one. Capt. Haedy states 

 that they are seen attached to the reeds and stems of aquatic plants 

 a few inches above the water, and that the first object which attracts 

 the collector to their resting place is the movement of the throat as 

 each little frog continues its piping noise. The curious cruciform 

 rhomboid of dark Hues on the back, and the triangular patch on 

 the occiput at once prove it to be distinct from the young of other 

 species frequenting the same places. In 1863, 1 heard its fii-st pipe 

 in my pond on the 28th of April; in 1864, on the 25th of April ; 

 and this year, 1865, as early as April Tth. I have generally heard 



