THE TREE-FROG 
for a long time very ieee st in a moss 
garden. Dr. Samuel Henshaw, of the Cam- 
bridge Museum of Natural History, writes: 
“T have had for some years two of the 
tamest, dearest tree-frogs (Hyla versicolor), 
you can imagine. They sit on my finger 
and take their meal worms, and they cuddle in the 
most attractive manner. Their voice is delightful, 
especially when unexpected and out of season.” 
My own favorite is Pickering’s Hyla. I kept oneof 
these for many months, and often in the night it 
would startle the entire household by giving a long, 
clear, melodious note, like that of some large bird. 
The reason we see so little of tree-frogs is because 
they can change color to suit their surroundings. I 
have taken three of these peepers, all of them pale 
yellowish brown with grey markings, and have 
placed one upon a fern, one on dark soil, and one on 
the purple. bud of a flower. Within a half hour each 
matched its surroundings so closely that a casual 
glance would not detect it. 
The song of the spring peepers is loved by everyone 
who dwells in the country. Howsuch small creatures 
can make such a loud song is a mystery. It is 
interesting to watch one of them singing; the thin 
membrane beneath the throat swells out until it 
looks like a little balloon with a froglet attached. 
The tree-frogs have toes and fingers ending in little 
circular disks, which secrete, at will, a sticky sub- 
stance, by means of which they can cling to vertical 
253 
