. Familiar life in field and forest; the animals, birds, frogs, and salamanders . borders. The moresouthern pipers do not have to brave these last foot-prints of the winter king so continually, and I cannot therefore consider them the earliest of all springsingers. It is a most remarkable circumstance that Picker-ings Hyla is always heard, but is seldom seen. Hehas a disappointing way ofsubmerging himself to hisvery eyelids in the chilly the mercury at fifty de-grees he will pipe up at aboutfour or five in the afternoon. Ifwe wish to catch him in the actwe must choose a warmer day,whe
. Familiar life in field and forest; the animals, birds, frogs, and salamanders . borders. The moresouthern pipers do not have to brave these last foot-prints of the winter king so continually, and I cannot therefore consider them the earliest of all springsingers. It is a most remarkable circumstance that Picker-ings Hyla is always heard, but is seldom seen. Hehas a disappointing way ofsubmerging himself to hisvery eyelids in the chilly the mercury at fifty de-grees he will pipe up at aboutfour or five in the afternoon. Ifwe wish to catch him in the actwe must choose a warmer day,when the mercury stands at sixty spring Peeper degrees, sit patiently and immova- ™£S£Z2^bly on the log for a good half hour,and scan the surface of the pool near the margin withan opera glass. Here we will be sure to see the bulgyeyes and the tip of the nose just appearing abovethe water, and if we are fortunate, we may see oneof the tiny ocher-yellow creatures perched on somewithered cat-tail leaf, singing his song in plain viewthrough the glass. Such a tremendous effort he. 4 FAMILIAR LIFE IN FIELD AND FOREST. makes to throw out the liquid whistle, no wonder itcan be heard on a still afternoon nearly a quarter ofa mile away! Beneath his chin the skin is swelledout like a brownish-white bubble half the size of hiswhole body. Imagine a man swelling his throatthus until it took a balloon shape fully three feet indiameter, and then letting the thing collapse with adeafening scream that could be heard fully eighteenmiles! Yet this, supposing the Hylds size and voicecould be proportionately increased, is exactly whatwould happen. The muscular effort which the tiny creaturemakes to empty his lungs seems not only to collapsethe bubble, but most of the body, so that whenhe has let out one shrill whistle there is apparentlynothing left but his back, head, and legs. But inanother instant he has swelled again, and the per-formance goes on with no evidence that even thesmallest blood-ve
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Keywords: ., bookauthorma, bookcentury1800, bookdecade1890, booksubjectzoology
