Outings at Odd TimesAbbott, Charles C. (Charles Conrad)
History
Outings at Odd Times
Abbott, Charles C. (Charles Conrad)
Natural history -- Outdoor books
I recently rambled for half a night over acres of wild marsh, and, while
I often wished myself at home or that I could grasp the arm of a friend,
yet am heartily glad, now that it is over, that I undertook to trespass
upon the haunts of owls, frogs, bitterns, and a host of minor creatures.
But let me be more explicit, and a word further concerning frogs. In the
tide marshes, where the shallow water has been warmed by the noonday
sun, the pretty little _hylodes_ were holding high carnival. I strolled
leisurely, at this stage of my ramble, to the water’s edge, but only to
find that the creatures could only be heard, not seen; unless, indeed,
the trembling specks upon the glimmering pools, which faded out at my
approach, were they. The piercing shrillness of their united songs was
something wonderful. It was not so much a chorus as the wildest orgies
of Lilliputian fifers. At times the song of this same frog is the sharp
clicking of a castanet, hence their name in zoölogy, _Acris crepitans_,
but none were crepitating that night. Yesterday I waded into a wet
meadow and crouched upon a projecting hassock. Thousands of the fifing
frogs were about me, but I could see none. I long sat there, hoping that
my patience would be rewarded in time, and so it was. At last one came
cautiously from its hiding-place in the submerged grass, thrusting but
its head above the water’s surface, and scanned closely its
surroundings. It eyed me most suspiciously, and then slowly crawled out
upon outreaching grass until quite above the water. It seemed very long
before it was suited to its perch but when comfortably fixed, appeared
to gulp in a great mouthful of air; in fact, must have done so, for
immediately an enormous globular sac formed beneath its lower jaw. The
sunlight being favorable, I could see that the sac contained about two
drops of water. Then the fifing commenced. The motion of the mouth was
too slight to be detected, but the membranous globe decreased or
increased with each utterance. At no time did it wholly disappear.
Noting so much, I then moved slightly to attract the creature’s
attention. Immediately it ceased fifing, but the sac remained slightly
diminished in size. As I was again perfectly quiet, its confidence
returned, and the shrill monotonous “peep!” was resumed, but pitched in
even a higher key, as though to make good the loss of time my slight
interference had caused.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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