Green Frog — Part 2

Rana clamitans Latreille.

In the adult frog the head and the upper third of the body are brilliant metallic green. This colour merges into a dull brownish olive on the posterior portion of back and sides. This dull colour is likely to be irregularly spotted with dark brown. The young frogs (sometimes the older ones) lack the light metallic green on the head and shoulders. Instead, there may be a well-defined band of the brilliant green on the sides of the upper jaw below the eyes and ears, but elsewhere the green is replaced by dull olive. (For colouration of the Green Frog, see Colour Plate XIII.)

The head is narrower than that of the Bullfrog, but it is unusually thick through. (The head of the female is narrower than that of the male.) The eye is very large and bright, with a golden iris and an oval black pupil. The ear of the male is much larger than the eye. (Fig. 229.) It is a conspicuous flat brown circle with a yellow spot at the centre. The ear of the female is smaller--about the size of the eye--and lacks the yellow centre. (Colour Plate XIII.)

The Green Frog moults the skin four or more times each year. If the frog is out of the water when the moulting takes place, the process is like that of the American Toad and of the Leopard Frog, and the skin is swallowed. If the moulting takes place in water, the skin may float off in large patches and is not eaten.

A small pond on a sunny day about the middle of April is a scene of much beauty and of great activity. There is a fringe of sombre alder enriching the brilliancy of a red maple and setting off the delicacy of a leaning grey birch. On one side the meadow slopes gently to the edge of the water. The bottom of the pond is a mat of delicate green, with lifted layers forming black openings leading to hidden caverns. The water is very clear. Suddenly the sun goes under a cloud, and the water becomes dark and impenetrable to the sight. A gust of wind sends the smooth surface into thousands of ripples that race toward the edge, but before they reach it a reverse wind hurries them off to one side, and all is still again. A song-sparrow sings from the shelter of the alders. Again the sun comes out, and the bottom of the pond is again illuminated. The smallest object can be seen distinctly. Brown tadpoles appear, and with vigorous tail-wigglings begin nibbling the green of the pond bottom. A few of them rise to the surface to rest in the sunshine. There creeps a caddis-fly larva, clumsily carrying its log house. Long-legged water-striders walk on the surface where there were none a moment before. Black, flat-bottomed whirligig beetles skate over the surface in interlacing courses that never end. From one of the dark cavern doors a black, yellow-spotted salamander (Amblystoma tigrinum) appears, moves slowly and gracefully over the green, to disappear within another arched doorway in the green. A painted turtle in the shallow margin water lumbers over the green with head bent downward, and disappears underneath. Suddenly frogs' heads are lifted above the green, and then above the water. They are Green Frogs; the water is so clear and so illuminated, that we can see the lateral folds on their sides. All is silent. Their eyes are watchful. Occasionally one moves a short distance in such a way--half-floating, half-swimming--that the water is undisturbed. One eats a water-strider, making a slight splash and ripple of the water as he uses his hands to help get the insect's long legs into his mouth. Having finished the first, he devours another. A second frog snaps up a back-swimmer that has rushed to the surface for a breath of air. A large dragonfly larva creeps right under one frog's nose. He dives for it with a great splash of the water, and if we can judge by his look of satisfaction and the number of times the great eyes are lowered and lifted, success met his effort. A company of whirligig beetles circles near one of the frogs. He sees them at a distance of three or more feet, and swims slowly about half the distance towards them. They approach still nearer. There! He snaps up one, then another, then a third. The company takes alarm; some dive under the water (each with its silver bubble of air), others dash over the surface to join a second company farther away.

And so on. A small pond has infinite numbers of large and small forms of life, in a world practically concealed from us. In this world each creature is wholly intent on his one interest of the moment, whether it be escape from a devouring enemy, or the finding of a mate, or a snug retreat, or a breakfast. This little world reminds us of our own, in the fact that very often the interests of various individuals clash.