56 



several inches deep in the mud and pass the cold weather 

 in a torpid condition. During June^ the females lay in 

 the neighborhood of forty eggs each in holes that they dig 

 near the edges of ponds or rivers. The little turtle grows 

 rapidly for the first year, but their development there- 

 after is slow, being more and more retarded as they in- 

 crease in years. Turtles live to be very old. Undoubtedly 

 some of the forty and fifty pounders are older than the 

 most aged living humans. Some of the captured Gala- 

 pagos Tortoises are estimated to be more than two thou- 

 sand years old. 



All turtles have the snake-like habit of hissing when 

 angry and of very suddenly and unexpectedly darting the 

 head forward to seize their prey. 



FROGS. 



Frogs and their tadpoles are, of course, familiar objects 

 to everyone but they are alwai^s interesting, — doubly so, 

 perhaps, because they can so easily be raised in captivity. 

 Every well-regulated schoolroom has one or more tanks 

 for the study of amphibious creatures. 



There are differences in the habits of many species of 

 frogs. Their eggs are always jelly-like in substance but 

 some are laid in long strings, some in masses attached to 

 plants, some floating and some dropped singly. Some 

 tadpoles, too, develop into frogs within a few months, 

 some do not change for a year and those of the common 

 bullfrog remain in the "polly-wog" stage for two or more 

 years often being enormous creatures before changing. 

 We will delve a bit into the life history of the most attrac- 

 tive species, — 



THE LEOPARD FROG (Rana pipiens). 



Besides being a handsome frog, the leopard is probably 

 the most abundant and most widely distributed species. 



