Eastern Wood Frog — Part 3

Rana sylvatica Le Conte

In late May, the margins of the ponds will be found swarming with young Wood Frogs with tails of varying lengths. The frogs (minus the tails) are 3/4 inch long, about the size of a male adult Pickering's Hyla. Their hind legs are extremely long, and the webs are fully developed. The lateral folds show red-brown on a dark wood-brown background. The young frogs are active and shy.

In permanent ponds or in deep or well-shaded temporary pools, the development is more slow, because the pool endures longer, and the frog is somewhat larger when it leaves the water.

In late June, the brown leaves of the bottom of such a pond are covered with Wood Frog tadpoles that just match the leaves in colour. Many of them have the legs well developed, perhaps the arms also. With their plump "pollywog" bodies and their long waving tails, they are much larger than the young frogs that have left the water.

The variation in colour among the Wood Frogs is great indeed, and the colour changes are fairly rapid. The young frogs are likely to be dark in colour, more often than light; and when light, they are more nearly grey than brown. The older ones vary from a colour so light that it might be called flesh-colour, to a brown that is almost black. The female is usually much lighter than the male. The Wood Frogs may be either conspicuously spotted and the legs conspicuously barred, or they may show perfectly even colour without trace of spots or bars. Indeed, conspicuously spotted and barred frogs may lose all trace of the markings with-in the space of half an hour. The change from light brown to dark, or the reverse, may take place in fifteen minutes only. (See Colour Plate XIV.)

The Wood Frog is beautiful at all times It has a high-bred and delicate air. It is to the ground what the chickadee is to the trees-a gentle spirit of the woods. Its appearance and ways are always in harmony with the subdued light, the quiet, and the delicate mosses and frail ferns that live in the shade of great trees.