Scouting For Girls, Official Handbook of the Girl Scouts

by Girl Scouts of the United States of America

BULLFROG
The largest of our frogs, remarkable for its sonorous bass notes. Range: Eastern United States westward to Kansas. Photograph by Herbert Lang.

The belief that warts are caused by handling toads has no foundation in fact.

The toad is a valuable friend of the gardener, for it feeds upon a great variety of destructive insects.

The life of our Salamanders is very similar to that of the frogs and toads. The eggs hatch out into tadpoles, then legs are developed, but the tail is not absorbed. Unlike the frogs and toads, the Salamander keeps its tail throughout life, and in some kinds of Salamanders which spend all of their time in the water, the gills are used throughout life. Salamanders have various common names, some being called newts, others water-dogs or mud-puppies. The mud-eel and the Congo "snake" of the Southern States, and the "hell-bender" of the Ohio valley and south are all Salamanders. The belief that any of the Salamanders is poisonous is a myth and has no basis in fact.

SPRING PEEPER
The note of this piping hyla is a welcome sound about the ponds and swamps in early spring. Range: Eastern United States. Photograph by Herbert Lang.

Reptiles

Reptiles include Alligators, Crocodiles, Turtles, Lizards and Snakes. It is commonly said that reptiles are cold-blooded. This means that the temperature of their blood varies and is the same as the surrounding medium. The temperature of an Alligator that has been floating with its nose out of the water is the same as the surrounding water. The temperature of a turtle in the winter time is the same as the mud in which it is buried, while in the summer time it is much higher. What is true of the reptiles in respect to temperature is also true of Amphibians and Fishes. However, this is not true of Birds and Mammals, for these have a uniform temperature so high that they are called warm-blooded.

GILA MONSTER
So called from the Gila River in Arizona. The only member of the lizard family known to be venomous except the very similar crust-lizard found in Mexico. Range: Desert regions of southern Arizona and New Mexico.