_R. catesbiana_ is now the settled name of _the_ "Bullfrog" of North America, the much more appropriate name of _mugiens_ having been sacrificed to the fetish of priority. The tympanum is extraordinarily large, at least equal to the size of the eye, largest in the male. The first finger does not extend beyond the second; the toes are connected by a broad web down to the ends, and there is a small inner, but no outer, metatarsal tubercle. The upper parts are olive brown, clouded with dark brown or blackish spots; the under parts are yellowish white, often marbled with brown, especially on the throat. The iris is reddish, with an outer yellow ring. The male possesses two internal vocal sacs. Total length of adult specimens about 5 inches, but there are giants on record 7 inches in length, while the stretched hind-limbs measure another 9 or 10 inches. Its home extends over the whole of the United States, East of the {262}Rocky Mountains, southwards into Mexico, northwards into Canada. According to Holbrook the Bullfrogs are solitary in their habits, only collecting together in the breeding season, when hundreds may be seen in the same small pond; and then the croak uttered by the males is so loud as to resemble the distant roaring of a bull, and can be heard on still evenings at a distance of half a mile. The voice is a hoarse bass "brwoom," playfully translated into "more rum." "They cannot be said to abound, but are found commonly enough sitting half immersed in water, or on the banks of ponds, waiting for their prey. If alarmed they hop suddenly into the water, but do not conceal themselves at once, frequently skimming along the surface for several yards before they dive below." They are the most aquatic of all the North American frogs, and Holbrook has known specimens to live in wells for years, where they could not rest a moment on solid ground above the water. The Bullfrog is voracious, and takes almost anything that lives or gets into his own pond–Mollusca, Crustacea, fishes and, above all, frogs. There is no doubt that they drag down and swallow a good many ducklings and the young of other water-fowl, but certainly not the half-grown birds which have a way of disappearing from the farms wherever there are negroes and other farm-hands about. In turn the bullfrog has sufficient enemies to keep its numbers down, in fishes, birds, otters, and snakes, and, in the South, alligators. Although easily kept and growing comparatively tame, they are dull, having to be kept in solitary confinement on account of their greediness, which knows no limits. Two of our specimens each swallowed a full-grown _Salamandra maculosa_, and died within the same night, probably not understanding the meaning of the conspicuous black and yellow warning colours of the European.