e
temperature range.

[Illustration: FIG. 2. Body temperatures and nearby air temperatures for
frogs found under natural conditions. Dots represent frogs found under
shelter; circles represent those found in the open.]

After the first frost each year the frogs usually could not be found,
either in the open or in their usual hiding places beneath rocks. They
probably had retired to deep subterranean hibernation sites. The only
exception was in 1954, when two immature frogs were found together in a
pitfall on the morning of December 5 after a rain of .55 inches ending
many weeks of drought. Air temperature had been little above 10 deg. C.
that night, but had often been below freezing in the preceding five
weeks.

Reactions of these same two individuals to low temperatures were tested
in the laboratory. At a body temperature of 11 deg. C. they were
extremely sluggish. They were capable of slow, waddling movements, but
were reluctant to move and tended to crouch motionless. Even when they
were prodded, they usually did not move away, but merely flinched
slightly. At 6 deg. C. they were even more sluggish, and seemed
incapable of locomotion, as they could not be induced to hop or walk by
prodding with a fine wire. When placed upside down on a flat surface,
they could turn over, but did so slowly, sometimes only after a minute
or more had elapsed. Respiratory throat movements numbered 46 and 60 per
minute.

BREEDING

Many observers have noted that breeding activity is initiated by heavy
rains in summer. In my experience precipitation of at least two inches
within a few days is necessary to bring forth large breeding choruses.
With smaller amounts of precipitation only stragglers or small
aggregations are present at the breeding ponds. Tanner (1950: 48) stated
that in three years of observation, near Lawrence, Kansas, the first
storms to bring large numbers of males to the breeding ponds occurred on
June 20, 1947, June 18, 1948, and May 1, 1949.

In 1954 the frogs were recorded first on April 25, but these were under
massive boulders, and were still semi-torpid. Frogs were found fully
active, in numbers, under small flat rocks on May 7. They were found
frequently thereafter. On the afternoon of May 13, the third consecutive
day with temperature slightly above 21 deg. C., low croaking of a frog
was heard among rocks at an old abandoned quarry. Throughout the
remainder of May, calling was heard frequently at the quarr