ed. He did
not speculate concerning the origin of these injuries. However, it seems
likely that many or all of them were inflicted by the short-tailed shrew
(_Blarina brevicauda_). Five-lined skinks living on the same area were
likewise found to be scarred by bites which I identified (Fitch, 1954:
133) as bites of the short-tailed shrew. This shrew is common on the
Reservation, especially in woodland. Many have been trapped in the
pitfalls. On several occasions when a short-tailed shrew was caught in
the same pitfall with ant-eating frogs, it was found to have killed and
eaten them. Like the frogs, the shrews were most often caught in
pitfalls just after heavy rains. Once in 1954 a shrew was found at the
quarry in a pitfall that had been one of those most productive of frogs.
The bottom of the pitfall was strewn with the discarded remains (mostly
feet and skins) of perhaps a dozen ant-eating frogs. All had been eaten
during one night and the following morning, as the trap had been checked
on the preceding day. On other occasions shrews caught in pitfalls with
several frogs had killed and eaten some and left others unharmed.

SUMMARY

In northeastern Kansas the ant-eating frog, _Gastrophryne olivacea_, is
one of the more common species of amphibians. This area is near the
northern limits of the species, genus, and family. The species prefers a
dry, rocky upland habitat often in open woods or at woodland edge where
other kinds of salientians do not ordinarily occur. It is, however,
tolerant of a wide variety of habitat conditions, and may occur in river
flood plains or cultivated land. In these situations where surface rocks
are absent, cracks and rodent burrows presumably furnish the
subterranean shelter that it requires.

This frog is secretive and spends most of the time in subterranean
shelter, obtaining its food there rather than in the open. Only on warm
rainy nights is it inclined to venture into the open. Then, it moves
about rapidly and with a scuttling gait, a combination of running and
short hops. However, it may be flushed in daylight from a hiding place
by the vibrations from footsteps of a person or an animal, or it may
move about in the daytime when temperatures at night are too low for
activity. Though not swift of foot, the frogs are elusive because of
their tendency to keep under cover, their slippery dermal secretion, and
the ease with which they find and enter holes, or crevices to escape.

Breed