way from the pond a few days
afterward might have been expected but none at all was caught while
making a return trip. Therefore it seems that the frogs returned by a
different route to their home ranges after breeding. Of necessity they
make the return trip under conditions drier than those that prevail on
the pondward trip, which is usually made in a downpour. Probably the
return travel is slower, more leisurely, and with more tendency to keep
to sheltered situations.

The call is a bleat, resembling that of a sheep, but higher, of lesser
volume, and is not unlike the loud rattling buzz of an angry bee. The
call is usually of three to four seconds duration, with an interval
several times as long. Calling males were floating, almost upright, in
the water within a few yards of shore, where there was dense vegetation.
The throat pouch when fully expanded is several times as large as the
entire head. When a person approached to within a few yards of frogs
they usually stopped calling, submerged, and swam to a place of
concealment.

Having heard the call of typical _G. carolinensis_ in Louisiana, I have
the impression that it is a little shorter, more sheeplike, and less
insectlike than that of _G. olivacea_. The call of _Gastrophryne_ is of
such peculiar quality that it is difficult to describe. Different
observers have described it in different terms. Stebbins (1951: 391) has
described the call in greatest detail, and also has quoted from the
descriptions of it previously published. These descriptions include the
following: "high, shrill buzz"; "buzz, harsh and metallic"; "like an
electric buzzer"; "like bees at close range but more like sheep at a
distance"; "bleating baa"; "shrill, long-drawn quaw quaw"; "whistled
wh[=e][=e] followed by a bleat."

Stebbins observed breeding choruses (_mazatlanensis_) at Pe[~n]a Blanca
Springs, Arizona, and stated that sometimes three or four called more or
less together, but that they seldom started simultaneously. Occasionally
many voices would be heard in unison followed by an interval of silence,
but this performance was erratic. At the pond on the Reservation I noted
this same tendency many times. After a lull the chorus would begin with
a few sporadic croaks, then four or five or even more frogs would be
calling simultaneously from an area of a few square yards. Anderson
(_op. cit._: 34) found that in small groups of calling _G. carolinensis_
there was a distinct tendency to ma