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Green Tree Frog — Part 3

The power for colour change is pronounced, as it is in all members of the Hylidae. In bright light, as when hunting for insects among the pond-lilies and pickerel-weed of its haunt, it is brilliant yellow-green. On darker days and in captivity it tends to a dress of myrtle-green. It is like Hyla cinerea, in that in hibernation it may take on its lightest shades.

"Very little is known about the habits of Hyla evittata. In June and July the animals are to be found in the rank vegetation of the tide marshes. Here they remain quiet during the day, but as evening approaches they become active and noisy. Their food at the time consists chiefly of a small beetle that is found on the leaves of the pond-lilies. The note is like that of Hyla pickeringii in form, but in quality it is comparatively harsh and reedy, with a suggestion of distant guinea-fowl chatter, and scarcely a trace of the peculiar freshness so characteristic of the song of the smaller species. The song period continues through June and July. Later in the season the frogs leave the low marsh vegetation. As they are then perfectly silent, they are difficult to find, though occasionally one may be seen in a bush or small tree, but never far from water.

It is thought that the eggs are laid during June and July. They are small, loose masses, attached to the stems of pond-lily leaves.