We shall find no small number of the frog race throughout America.
Worthy of being the president of his nation is that enormous batrachian,
the bull frog, both from his size, the power of his notes, and his
hardihood and endurance. If we visit at night the neighbourhood of some
pool or marsh, we shall soon learn to know the sound of his voice,
especially when perhaps he and five hundred of his family are, with
their heads half out of the water, amusing themselves in the performance
of a concert, each striving to outdo his neighbour in the loudness of
his tones. He is a first-rate swimmer; and when driven out of the hole
in which he passes the warm hours of the day, he plunges into the water,
and skims along the surface some distance before he dives below it.
Only on such occasions, or when, perhaps, a dark thunder-cloud shrouds
the sky, does he appear in the daytime, and give utterance to his notes.
He feeds on snails and water creatures; sometimes on crayfish and other
crustaceans; and occasionally, if a duckling or young chicken come in
his way, he will not scruple to take them into his capacious maw.
His ordinary size is from six to seven inches; but specimens have been
met with which have measured nineteen--and even twenty--inches, from the
nose to the extremity of their feet. He has a smooth black skin above,
with a greenish hue on the head, and lower part of the body
greyish-white--the throat being white, dotted with green. He can take
enormous leaps; and is so admirable a swimmer, that specimens have been
known to exist in the water without once landing for several years.