A close relative is a brilliant scarlet frog, a denizen of the treetop of the dense Panama rain forest. From its skin also is exuded a virulent poison. One of the two jungle canopy frogs, it is less than an inch long. Its body has deep scarlet both above and below; its feet are black and its thighs are flecked with metallic green on the rear and metallic blue on the front. It is found only on the Atlantic side of the isthmus near the mouth of a small bay where Columbus once landed for fresh water. Outside its narrow range the creature has never been seen in its gorgeous colors. In captivity it probably would die very quickly. Placed in a preservative, it quickly turns to a drab, uniform black. The animal is a remarkable and peculiar climber. It ascends a tree trunk by a series of short jumps, catching its toes in rough spots on the bark. (Other tree frogs have suction disks on their feet by means of which they can walk up a tree in leisurely fashion.) It makes its way unerringly from the ground to its treetop home, a pool of water in the axil of a bromilead or “tank plant,” a tree of the pineapple family. _The Seal That Can “Lose” Its Head_ An animal that can pull its head almost completely into its neck has recently been added to the mammal collections of the Smithsonian Institution. This is the Ross seal, one of the rarest of all the seal family in the Antarctic. A frozen specimen captured by the Navy’s polar expedition in 1956 arrived at the U. S. National Museum in Washington in excellent condition. This seal—about 8 feet long—dwells exclusively on the drifting ice pack of the Ross Sea. So far as is known it never comes on land or on the ice shelf. It apparently feeds almost exclusively on cuttlefish and squid, which are abundant in Antarctic waters. To judge by the nature of its teeth it undoubtedly is not a fish-eater. It is yellowish-green on the underside and blackish-brown on the top, the fur often being marked with pale streaks along the sides. On the drifting pack it has fearsome enemies—notably the killer whale and the writhing, snake-like sea-leopard, most savage of the seal family—which may account for its relative scarcity. The outstanding peculiarity of the creature, probably unique among mammals, is the thick bloated neck into which the head can be withdrawn. This may be a protective characteristic although it could hardly serve the creature against its fierce enemies. On the other hand, withdrawal of the head may be a comfortable habit in a very cold climate. _The Delectable Horned Viper_