OVERTON" : I.OXC, ISLAND FROGS AXD TOADS. 33 
quiekh- turned about and resinned their ordinar\' soiiijs. This \iev- 
formance was repeated several times while I watched them with aching; 
feet, for they waited a long time between their turkey calls. The Long- 
Island negroes name the call a " turkey root," from a superstitious belief 
in the virtues of roots in conjuring and magic. A negro calls an\- 
mysterious sound or sight a conjure, or " root." and he will run a mile 
to avoid hearing a " turkey root." 
A tree frog resting on the branch of an apple tree can scarcely be 
seen, for it looks like a bit of moss.\- bark. Zoologists call the tree frog 
//r/a versicolor, from the ability which it .sometimes has to change the 
color of its skin to conform to the color of the object on which it rests, 
but this ability seems to be absent more often than it is present. The 
usual color of the tree frog is gra\-, with a black, five-pointed star be- 
tween its shoulders. 
5. SPRIXCr PI'EPER 
!Iyh7 piikcrinoi H.-lbrook 
Length of body 1..S0 to 3 centimeters ( .75 to 1.25 inches I. Skin, smooth 
and shining. Climbing discs on the toes. Color, pink to dark brown with dark cross 
lines on the back and legs. The back of a typical specimen has a dark \-ertical 
iTiarking shaped like two Y's joined b}- their upright parts. 
The first frog sound that is heard on Long Island in s]iringtime is 
made by a small tree frog, scarcely an inch long, called the spring 
peeper. This little fellow has a smooth, sliin\- skin that is colored some 
shade of brown or red, \-aryiug from delicate i>ink to almost black. It 
.sings while sitting in a bunch of grass, or on a floating leaf or .stick, or 
clinging to a spear of gra.ss. It looks like a tiny negro baby that has 
been in swimming. When it is about to .sing, it distends its throat, and 
keeps the vocal sac expanded for minutes at a time, but it distends the 
.sac still more at each jieep. The si>ring peeper and the cricket frog are 
the only representatives of our frogs and toads that hold the \-ocal sac 
di.stended between calls. 
The sound made b_\- a spring peeper has the ipialitN of a shrill 
whistle. Its pitch is ver\- high, about C two octa\-es above middle C. 
It rises about half a tone during the peep. Each peep la.sts aljout half 
a second, and is repeated for ten or twenty or more times at intervals of 
about a second. The sound may be imitated by whistling the notes at a 
pitch about as high as one can ordinarih- whistle. Individual frogs 
occasionallx' whistle their notes with a distinct trilling. 
