OVERTON : LONG ISLAXD I'ROGS AND TOADS. ^"^7 
Toof of the mouth and making an explosive clucking sound which has no 
hissing quality-. When wood frogs are heard at a distance, they sound 
like a flock of barnyard ducks clucking, not quacking. The sounds 
might be mistaken for a chorus of leopard frogs, unless attention is given 
to the indi\idual notes. A leopard frog drawls out each individual .sound, 
while each note of a wood frog is an exjilosion. 
Wood frogs usuall\- appear in their pools suddenly, and in great 
numbers. They are extremely shy, and cainiot be approached readily. 
They lie sprawled on the surface of the pools, awa\" from the banks, and 
are usually in con.stant motion. The males fight among them.selves, and 
turn somersaults as they wrestle, but they are unable lo harm one 
another. Thev are land frogs, but seem possessed with the desire to 
make the most of the water during their short breeding season. 
A wood frog usually makes its sound while h'ing on the surface of 
deep water. It di.stends the sides of its throat and the regions over its 
shoulders, but it does not possess well-defined .sacs, like the leopard frog. 
When it makes its noise, it swells out its throat with such an e.xplo.sive 
vigor that it produces circles of waves in the water around its head. The 
sound is made without warning and with such suddenness that a camera 
can catch onh- the waves produced by the vocal effort. A photograph of 
.1 wood frog with its neck and throat distended in song could be obtained 
only b\' the merest chance. A wood frog frequently makes three or four 
clucks in rapid succes.sion, but while it is making a .series of clucks, it is 
uearl\- always swimming so fast that a camera cannot be kept focused 
on it. 
In the year 191 3 wood frogs appeared in a jiool in the woods near 
Patchogue on March sixteenth. The day was e.xtremely warm, and had 
been preceded by three or four days of mild weather. The frogs remained 
for about a week, but they sang in the daytime only, for all the evenings 
were cool. On the seventeenth the temperature did not rise above 55° 
I''., and no frogs were heard. On the nineteenth and twentieth the 
temperature ro.se to 55° F.. at noon, and the frogs sang in a chorus. 
The temperature fell on the twent\- first, and few wood frogs were heard 
after that date. In the meantime, the\' had laid an abundance of eggs. 
A wood frog lays its eggs in a globular mass about two inches in 
diameter, so closely attached to a small stick or stiff spear of gra.ss that 
the whole mass may be lifted from the water. The onh- other Long 
Island animals that lay eggs in a similar maimer are two of the larger 
salamanders. 
