1882] 87 [Hinckley. 



grasses, weed stalks, or branches under water. It is not uncom- 

 mon to find two or more bunches laid closely together, giving, as 

 soon as the gelatinous portion enlarges, the appearance of one 

 large bunch. This season I found in a swamp within a space of 

 about ten by eighteen inches, sixteen bunches, evidently laid 

 about the same time, attached to the reclining grasses of a sub- 

 merged tussock. The masses of eggs vary little in size. On 

 counting a bunch of average size the day after it was laid, which 

 measured about four inches long by three wide, I found it num- 

 bered 1380 eggs, each of which was enclosed by two transpar- 

 ent, membranous shells. The time in which the eggs develop 

 depends chiefly on the temperature of the water; those laid early 

 in March are rarely hatched before the first week in April here, 

 while those laid at the latter date, in an average season, hatch in 

 from ten to fourteen days. This year, eggs laid March 23, and 

 April 2, hatched at the same time, April 16. In this locality the 

 period of egg-laying is usually over about the twentieth of April. 

 On March 8, 1880, there was a light fall of snow on the ground, 

 but at noon the temperature of the air was 40°, and at a small, 

 sheltered pond the frogs were seen. They were in the shallow 

 water on the sunny side of the pond ; its shaded side held a rim 

 of thin ice. The w r ater was clear as glass ; nothing disturbed its 

 surface but the wedge-shaped wakes made by the frogs in swim- 

 ming about, with only their head and shoulders above water. As 

 soon as they were aware of a spectator, the quacking, which they 

 w T ere giving with much animation, suddenly ceased, and the frogs 

 dived out of sight, leaving a faint ripple to smooth out on the 

 water's surface. After a while a frog arose cautiously, scarcely 

 dimpling the surface of the water, and having floated about some 

 time as if to assure himself that danger was past, gave four 

 " quacks " in quick succession, apparently as a question to estab- 

 lish the whereabouts of the rest of the party. He so exactly 

 matched the brown, water-soaked herbage in color, as to be un- 

 noticed till he moved. A slight disturbance of the water soon 

 followed as another frog arose less cautiously. He repeated the 

 same sound in a different key, and propelled himself towards the 

 first frog. Suddenly the surface of the water was in commotion 

 with whirls and wakes. Heads appeared above dead weeds and 

 grasses till I counted twenty-three frogs all giving voice. The 



