Catch two Rana palustris coupled.

April 23. 

Bloodroot
April 25,2014

I receive to-day Sanguinaria Canadensis [bloodroot] from Brattleboro, well in bloom, - how long?- in a large box full of mayflowers. 

The toads ring now by day, but not very loud nor generally. 

I see the large head apparently of a bullfrog, by the riverside. 

Many middle-sized frogs, apparently bull frogs, green above and more or less dark-spotted, with either yellow or white throats, sitting along the water's edge now. 

Catch two Rana palustris coupled. They jump together into the river. 

The male is two and a quarter inches long. This I find to be about an average-sized one of four or five that I distinguish. Above, pale-brown or fawn-brown (another, which I think is a male from the size and the equally bright yellow of the abdomen and inside of limbs, is dusky-brown, and next day both the males are of this color; so you must notice the change of color of frogs), with two rows of very oblong, two or three or more times as long as broad, squarish-ended dark-brown spots with a light-brown edge, the rear ones becoming smaller and roundish: also a similar row along each side, and, beneath it, a row of smaller roundish spots; as Storer says, a large roundish spot on the upper and inner side of each orbit and one on the top of the head before it; the throat and forward part of the belly, cream-colored; abdomen and inside of the limbs bright ochreous-yellow, part of which is seen in looking at the back of the frog. Tympanum slightly convex in middle. 

Rana Palustris

The female is about an eighth of an inch longer (another one is three quarters of an inch longer), beside being now fuller (probably of spawn). The pale brown, or fawn-brown, is more brassy or bronze-like and does not become darker next day. She has no very oblong squarish spots on back, but smaller and roundish ones and many fine dusky spots interspersed; is thickly dark spotted on sides. Throat and belly, white or pale cream-color; sides of abdomen only and inside of limbs, much paler yellow than the male; has no dark spots on orbits or on head in front (another specimen has). 

Saw a Viola blanda in a girl's hand.

H. D. Thoreau, Journal, April 23, 1858

The toads ring now by day, but not very loud nor generally. See April 13, 1858 ("Hear the first toad in the rather cool rain."); April 18, 1855 ("In the evening hear far and wide the ring of toads,"); April 19, 1858 (" Perhaps I first hear them at night, though cooler, because it is still. ");April 20, 1860 ("It is a warm evening, and I hear toads ring distinctly for the first time"); April 23, 1861 ("Toads ring");. April 25, 1856 ("The toads have begun fairly to ring at noonday. . . The voice of the toad, the herald of warmer weather"); May 1, 1858 (" The toads are so numerous, some sitting on all sides, that their ring is a continuous sound throughout the day and night. ") See also A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, The ring of toads

See the large head apparently of a bullfrog, by the riverside. Many middle-sized frogs, apparently bull frogs, green above and more or less dark-spotted, with either yellow or white throats,  sitting along the water's edge now. Catch two Rana palustris coupled. See April 17, 1855 (“Yesterday I saw several larger frogs out. Perhaps some were small bullfrogs. That warmth brought them out on to the bank, and they jumped in before me. The general stirring of frogs. To-day I see a Rana palustris — I think the first — and a middling sized bullfrog, I think. ”); April 18, 1858 (" I suspect that all these frogs may be the R. fontinalis, and none of them bullfrogs.. . . I doubt if I have seen a bullfrog yet.”); April 27, 1856 (Apparently a small bullfrog by riverside, though it looks somewhat like a Rana fontinalis; also two or three (apparently) R. palustris in that well of Monroe’s, which have jumped in over the curb, perhaps.”);  May 1, 1858  ("I find many apparent young bullfrogs in the shaded pools on the Island Neck. Probably R. fontinalis.”);  May 1, 1858 ("I do not see a single R. halecina. What has become of the thousands with which the meadows swarmed a month ago? They have given place to the R. palustris. Only their spawn, mostly hatched and dissolving, remains, and I expect to detect the spawn of the palustris soon.").

Saw a Viola blanda in a girl's hand. See April 25, 1859 ("The Viola blanda are numerously open, say two days at least."); May 5, 1853 ("The Emerson children found blue and white violets May 1st at Hubbard's Close, probably Viola ovata and blanda; but I have not been able to find any yet.”). See also A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, The Violets