Home › Volumes › Frogs › Narrow-mouthed Toads
Engystoma Texense, Girard — Part 3
The female has a voice, also, but it is less loud and vigorous. There is no distention of skin over the arm region.
The Leopard Frog makes a most interesting pet to keep for a few days in a small moss-garden enclosed with wire. He is very handsome and alert-looking. He eats worms and insects of all kinds. He will not take fish or other food from under water. It is reported that the Leopard Frog sometimes eats snails. He sings vigorously whenever handled, but, more curious still, he sings in low purring tones when water is poured gently on his back. He evidently likes it, and gives the same response that the cat gives when its fur is stroked.
The Leopard Frog is generally between three and four inches in length. The white throat is in constant rhythmic motion. The frog breathes just as the toad (For breathing of the toad,) does, though less rapidly. The usual colour of the Leopard Frog of the eastern United States is metallic green above and pearly white below, sometimes becoming yellowish on the posterior portion. There are two prominent bronze or yellow folds of skin extending almost parallel to each other from the eyes to the posterior end of the body. Between the lateral folds are two rows of rounded olive-green or brown spots, each circled by a narrow line of yellow or white. Below the folds along each side of the body there are two irregular rows of similar spots. There is a dark spot above each eye, and there may be a dark spot in front of the eyes. The eye itself is medium in size, with a wide orange-gold iris and a black pupil. A prominent black band passes lengthwise through the iris. There is a yellow or bronze stripe, which passes from the end of the muzzle to the shoulder, and another shorter one from the nostril to the eye. The upper jaw, which protrudes over the lower, is white, bordered above by black (which may be broken into spots). The black, in turn, has above it a yellowish glandular fold, which extends backward to the shoulder. There are two well-marked folds of skin between the bright-coloured lateral folds. There may be three or four dark cross-bands on the thigh, that are continuous (when the leg is folded) with similar bands on the lower leg and foot.
This description of colour is generally true, although there is often great divergence from it. As we walk across the meadows or skirt the marshes in August, hearing the summer song of the meadow-grasshoppers in the tall sedges and grasses, we can scarcely find tow Leopard Frogs that look alike in details. The variation in the colour and pattern of their dress is pronounced.
The ground colour may be brown, or light grey, or green, either light and metallic or very dark. The space between the lateral folds may be green and the space below brown. The folds may be light golden-yellow or dark bronze. The spots may be ringed with green when the background is brown. The greatest variety appears in the spots and their arrangement. They may be small and round, or larger and irregular. They may be in two distinct rows, or sometimes in three, or even grown together so as to form irregular cross-bands between the lateral folds. We may find a frog that has the spots of one row distinct and those of the others so blended as to form a band running lengthwise along the back. There may or may not be a spot on the end of the muzzle in front of the eyes. The spots on the sides may encroach on the lateral folds. Finally, the cross-bands on the thigh may be incomplete or broken into irregular spots. There is likely to be an irregular black band extending upward on the lower arm from the base of the fifth finger. There may be a similar black band on the sole of the foot from the fourth and fifth toes to the heel. The female usually has some grey or brown on the under surface. The colour of the iris changes under different light conditions. In hibernation, the orange-gold becomes darker and darker until the iris can scarcely be distinguished from the black pupil, but under the influence of strong light the bright metallic colour returns.