298 NATURE STUDY AND LIFE 



About three inches long. Our commonest and most beautiful 

 frog. Note, a cluck much like that of a hen but more musical ; 

 one of the first species heard in the spring. Eggs laid about as 

 soon as the snow melts in the spring. Food: insects (?). 



Brown Frog, Pickerel Frog, R. palustris. Brown, spots squarish 

 in four rows ; beneath, yellowish white. Length, three inches. 

 Note, a low, hoarse croak, like the sound made by tearing 

 coarse cloth. Spawning season is early spring. Habitat, cold 

 springs and streams. This frog has a somewhat disagreeable 

 odor and is remarkable for the length of its leaps, being next 

 to the most agile frog we have. Food: insects (?). 



Northern Frog, R. septentrionalis. Color above, olive with large 

 nearly circular blotclies of brown ; whitish beneath. Most vari- 

 able of all our frogs. Body stout, about two inches in length. 

 Possesses a strong odor of mink. Inhabits marshy waters, 

 northern United States and Canada; quite aquatic. Feeds on 

 insects and small fishes. Note and spawning season not given 

 in the books. 



Green Frog, R. clamata. Color above, bright green, rarely brown- 

 ish, with blackish spots ; white below. Note, a musical "Chung" 

 as it leaps into the water. Food : insects ; otherwise practically 

 unknown. Spawning season not given in the books. 



Bullfrog, R. catesbiatia. Our largest North American species. 

 Color, greenish olive above, variously marked with dusky 

 blotches ; below, white, often bright yellow under the throat. 

 The note is a deep bass " Br'wum," " more rum " or " jug o' rum," 

 heard so often in the early summer evenings. The spawning 

 season, so far as I have been able to observe, is late June and 

 July. The young remain in the water as tadpoles at least two 

 years and attain a length of five to eight inches. This is our most 

 valuable frog, but its work in nature is probably worth more than 

 its market price. The services of the large tadpoles, too, in cleans- 

 ing shallow ponds must be of considerable value. The number 

 of eggs laid by a large frog is not known, but is probably not less 

 than 20,000. Whatever the number, the frogs should be care- 

 fully protected — along with trout and other fishes — until after 



