EARLY VOICES OF SPEING. 15 



looking figure, the outline of which at all points 

 might easily touch the circumference of a circle. 

 The head is broader than it is long. The back of 

 the creature is generally ashen gray, with strange 

 blotches of green here and there ; but we must not 

 forget that he can change color, and in an envi- 

 ronment of leaves and grass he is decidedly green. 

 Again, on a lichen-covered log he is quite likely to 

 be brown-gray, and on the rough trunk of the swamp 

 maple {Acer 7'ubrum) an uncompi'omising brown. 

 In fact he possesses the power of metachrosis (color 

 change) to a wonderful degree; hence his specific 

 title versicolor. This change, however, is not accom- 

 plished quickly. His back is covered with warty 

 excrescences ; beneath his body, on the fighter skin, 

 are distinct granulations ; and a characteristic loose 

 fold extending across the chest indicates that he does 

 not " fit his clothes." 



The eggs of Hyla versicolor are laid in small 

 packets on blades of grass, slender sticks, and the 

 stems of weeds, in shallow pools. All through the 

 breeding season, in May or June, the bleating note 

 of this frog may be heard after the sun goes down, 

 in difEerent parts of the swamp, one voice respond- 

 ing to another, or perhaps both mingling. I have 

 counted about eight notes given out in one second 

 and a half. This is a fair average utterance of one 



