GREEN OR SPRING FROG. W11 
in some cases, at least, in springs. They prefer thick oak or maple 
forests as a habitation, and in Maine their notes may be heard as early 
as April, but in our limits earlier. They are never found in the south- 
ern states. Their color is quite variable being darker in spring, but be- 
coming paler after exposure for sometime tolight. The young are eight 
lines in length immediately after the loss of their tail. 
An interesting fact meets us by comparison of the specimensof Rana tem- 
poraria of the Old World with those of the New. That it is exceedingly 
variable is evident from the different varieties often mistaken for differ- 
ent species in this country and on the eastern continent. The most note- 
worthy fact, however, is that those of Japan and eastern Asia, in the size 
of the tympanum and coloration, are intermediate between those of 
Kurope and our American varieties. 
Some at least of the other Amphibia show the same relations, thus indi- 
cating, as pointed out by Prof. Marsh in regard to the extinct vertebrata, 
that there had probably once, if not oftener, been an interchange of 
faunas between the two continents through the region of Behring’s 
Straits. 
RANA CLAMITANS Daudin. 
Green or Spring Frogs. 
Rana clamata, DAUDIN, DUMERIL and BIBRON, GUNTHER 
Rana clamata, et flaviviridis, HARLAN. 
Rana clamitans, MERREM, HOLBROOK, ALLEN, VERRILL, CoPE, JORDAN. 
Rant fontinalis, LECONTE, STORER. 
Rana clamitans, fontinalis, et horiconensis, DEKAY. 
? Rana nigrescens, AGASSIZ. 
Color above green to brown, without any large spots; legs and sides irregularly 
spotted or speckled with darker; beneath silvery white to yellow; gular region often 
irregularly spotted with darker; thighs granulated posteriorly ; femur nearly as long as 
tibia ; toes and fingers with small tubercles at most of the joints; ‘ympanum of medium 
size or large, usually about eight or ten millimeters in diameter, but sometimes not 
over four, its color green, with a central nucleus of lighter green; eyes black; irides 
yellow; muzzle rounded somewhat; nostrils latero-vertical, half way between the eye 
and snout; inner nares medium, slightly more widely separated than the outer; 
vomerine teeth small, in two patches; dorso-lateral cutaneous fold well marked, reach- 
ing from the eye backwards. Length, 3 inches; head to axilla, 12 inches; hind leg, 4 
inches; fore leg, 14 inches; transverse diameter of head, 14 inches; vertical diameter 
of head, 73 lines; transverse diameter of body, 14 inches, 
Habitat, Nova Scotia, Maine, Massachusetts, New York, Pennsylvania, North 
Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Ohio, Michigan, Illinois, Arkansas. 
The Green Frog is common along brooks and around ponds, sitting 
upon the banks, and plunging at the approach of danger. In wet weather 
