RANAPIPIENS. 83 



that live about water, as a species of crawfish, (Astacus Blandingii,) two of which 

 I have found at a time in the stomach of a large bull frog; and Dr, Storer informs 

 me that he has often found their stomachs filled with snails, (Helix albolabris.) 

 Like all other frogs, they only seize their prey when it is alive or in motion; they 

 even take the hook readily, springing upon the bait with great avidity when it is 

 moved gently before them. 



Geographical Distribution. This animal is found in almost every part of the 

 United States; Kalm even met with it as far north as Quebec, in latitude 47°. 

 I have seen it in all the Atlantic, and have received specimens from the more 

 southern states; and ihere is no doubt of its being in the great valley of the west, 

 as Say observed it in Ohio. 



General Remarks. In no one of our frogs is there more difficulty in ascertain- 

 ing its original specific name. Clayton, in the Philosophical Transactions* for 

 1694, simply mentions it as a large frog, "bigger than any in England, which 

 makes a noise something like the bellowing of a bull." Catesby, whose description 

 is very correct, calls it the bull frog, under which name it is now universally 

 known, and says, "the noise they make has caused their name, for at a few 

 yards distance their bellowing sounds very much like that of a bull a quarter of 

 a mile off." Kalm, though he calls it by the same name, began the confusion by 

 referring it to the Rana ocellata, of Linnaeus, from which it is entirely distinct; 

 for this Rana ocellata first appears in the tenth edition of the Systema Naturae, 

 and is easily identified, as Linnteus gives but a single reference. Brown's History 

 of Jamaica; and in his description he says, "plantse pentadactylae subpalmatae," 

 which certainly cannot apply to the Bull frog. Kalm, however, insisting on the 

 identity of the Rana ocellata and Bull frog, perhaps led Linnaeus, in the tAvelfth 

 edition of the Systema Naturae, to give two other references for the former animal, 

 the Rana halecina of Kalm, and the Rana maxima, &c., of Catesby, and never were 

 three frogs more distinct. Gmelin, in his edition of the Systema Nature, copies 



* Vol. xviii. p. 125. 



