30 



FAMILIAR LIFE IN FIELD AND FOREST. 



few days ago, which it takes from my fingers, I was 

 startled by the on -rush of a little wood frog, which, 

 impatient for its own dinner, seriously attempted to 

 swallow both the tree toad and my fingers at one 

 mighty gulp. . . . With widely gaping jaws, which 

 were distended before the leap was made, the frog at- 

 tempted to scoop up the toad and swallow it, or get 

 such a hold as would make subsequent swallowing 

 an easy task; and yet the difference in size of the 

 two creatures was very little. As for the tree toad, 

 it took the whole proceeding as a matter of course, 

 not moving a muscle even when such great danger 

 was apparently imminent. The whole tribe of tail- 

 less batrachians is much alike in this respect, seem- 

 ingly taking it for granted that they were born to be 

 eaten, and stuff themselves until fate wills it that 

 they go to stuff others. ... I have seen little fellows 

 just from the tadpole state in dangerous proximity 

 to patriarchal bullfrogs, which were then only wait- 

 ing for their appetites to return to swallow a half 

 dozen of their own grandchildren ! " 



liana cateshunia is much less green than Rana 

 clamatd ; the color of the back is dull olive, some- 

 times marked with darker blotches or bands, the 

 positions of which are not always the same. The 

 head is usually yellowish olive-green, and the lower 

 part of the body much darker. Beneath, the crea- 



